Allen Hazen

New Meter Rates in the San Francisco District

New meter rates have been put in effect by two large water companies in the San Francisco district during the past year. These companies are the Spring Valley Water Company, supplying San Francisco, and the East Bay Water Company, supplying Oakland, Alameda, Berkeley, Richmond and other municipalities. Each system has approximately 65,000 services. The rates were asked for by the companies and the rates and the form of rate schedule were authorized by the California State Railroad Commission after hearings in each case. Each system is completely metered, the East Bay system for some years. Large takers and commercial takers of the Spring Valley system have been metered for some years, but residences have been metered only recently. The last residences were metered about September 1, 1918, and the new meter rates went into effect at that time. In each case the new schedule supersedes old schedules that were complicated and did not fairly distribute the burden among the different takers. In the Spring Valley system there were over 50,000 takers at flat rates. In the East Bay system each municipality had its own schedule of rates and the schedules varied among themselves. The new schedule is uniform for the entire system. The Spring Valley rates are arranged to produce the same revenue as the old rates in the aggregate, and it is provided that in the event that through inadvertence or as a result of conditions impossible to estimate accurately, a greater revenue shall be produced, all over-plus over present revenue shall be held at the disposition of the Commission for the benefit of consumers. If there is deficiency the Company loses it.