Buena Vista Water Storage District 2016 Engineer’s Assessment Report in Support of Proposition 218 Assessment Ballot Proceeding June 2016 Table of Contents 2016 Engineer’s Assessment Report ............................................................................................................. 1 1. Purpose of the Report ........................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 General .......................................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Proposition 218 Requirements ..................................................................................................... 2 1.3 Need for Increase in District Charges ........................................................................................... 3 1.4 Revenue Objectives............................................................................................................................. 3 2. District Background ................................................................................................................................... 3 2.1 General ................................................................................................................................................ 3 2.2 Location ............................................................................................................................................... 4 2.3 History ................................................................................................................................................. 6 2.4 Environmental Setting ........................................................................................................................ 7 2.4.1 Climate ......................................................................................................................................... 7 2.4.2 Terrain and Soils ........................................................................................................................... 8 2.4.3 Cropping Patterns ........................................................................................................................ 8 2.5 Water Supply ....................................................................................................................................... 9 2.5.1 Surface Water .............................................................................................................................. 9 2.5.2 Groundwater ................................................................................................................................ 9 2.5.3 Groundwater Recharge Activities .............................................................................................. 10 2.6 Water Use ......................................................................................................................................... 14 2.6.1 Agricultural Water Use ............................................................................................................... 14 2.6.2 Municipal Water Use ................................................................................................................. 14 3. Current Procedure for Setting Rates and Levying Assessments ............................................................. 14 3.1 Procedure for Setting Rates .............................................................................................................. 14 3.2 Procedure for Levying Assessments ................................................................................................. 15 3.3 Deficiencies in Rate Setting and Assessment Levying Procedures ................................................... 15 4. Proposal to Modify Procedure for Levying Assessments ........................................................................ 16 4.1 General .............................................................................................................................................. 16 4.2 Change in Assessment Procedure ..................................................................................................... 16 4.2.1 Special Benefit Assessment for Assessed Parcels ...................................................................... 16 4.2.2 Assessed Parcels......................................................................................................................... 16 5. Procedure for Setting Rates .................................................................................................................... 16 i BUENA VISTA WSD ENGINEER’S ASSESSMENT REPORT 5.1 General .............................................................................................................................................. 16 5.1.1 Purpose of three expense categories ........................................................................................ 16 5.1.2 Determination of total annual assessment................................................................................ 17 5.1.3 Determination of benefits.......................................................................................................... 17 5.2 Description of Expense Categories ................................................................................................... 18 5.2.1 Administrative (Kern River) ........................................................................................................ 18 5.2.2 State Water Project (SWP) ......................................................................................................... 19 5.2.3 Capital Improvement ................................................................................................................. 20 6. Calculation of Charges ............................................................................................................................ 23 6.1 General .............................................................................................................................................. 23 6.2 Calculation of Charges ...................................................................................................................... 23 6.3 Rate Proportionality .......................................................................................................................... 24 6.4 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 24 7. Implementation Procedures ................................................................................................................... 25 7.1 Implementation ................................................................................................................................ 25 ii BUENA VISTA WSD ENGINEER’S ASSESSMENT REPORT 2016 Engineer’s Assessment Report 1. Purpose of the Report 1.1 General The Buena Vista Water Storage District (Buena Vista, the District) levies an annual assessment on the lands within the District boundary to cover the cost of operating and maintaining the District’s Project1. This is an acreage-based assessment. The previous Assessment Report predates the passage of Proposition 218, was written soon after the last of the bonds for the District’s September 1928 Project had been retired and was prepared “to reassess the original District Project costs upon the benefited land”2. The result of this assessment procedure was the development of “factors” (Assessment No. 1R-4 M&O and Assessment No. 3 SWP factor, hereinafter “+/- factor”) used to weight assessments levied on individual parcels, a weighting based on the premise that benefits received by parcels vary and that assessments should vary correspondingly. The District believes that the benefits of the District’s Project now apply equally to all landowners within the District Service Area and that the methodology currently used to compute assessments is obsolete when viewed in the context of current District operations. Therefore, the District proposes to change the allocation of assessments in two regards: 1) Establish a uniform approach to identifying lands eligible for assessment. This would result in the elimination of the +/- factor and assessments being applied to all lands within the boundaries of the District except for lands falling into one of the following categories: a) District-owned lands; b) Lands owned by Semitropic Water Storage District (SWSD) which underlie a canal or ditch; c) Lands which underlie a District canal or ditch and for which a separate parcel has been created, i.e, the separate parcel was specifically created to delineate the land under the canal or ditch; d) Lands within Henry Miller Water District (HMWD); e) Lands owned by the Federal Government or the State of California (Interstate 5); f) Lands within the service area of the Buttonwillow County Water District (BCWD); and g) Lands within the District boundaries that do not, and cannot, receive a water supply from the District and receive no special benefit therefrom. Of these exceptions, item d) represents a unique condition in that Buena Vista does receive revenue from HMWD, however the revenue is a fee paid annually to Buena Vista and is not an assessment levied on individual parcels. While such land is within the boundaries of the District, said lands cannot receive water from the District and groundwater for this area is managed by the