Final Ruling: Water Authority Owed $188.3 Million Plus Interest in Rate Case
Superior Court judge also finds MWD
under-calculated Water Authority's
right to MWD water
A San Francisco Superior Court judge on Aug. 28 issued a final decision that says the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California must pay the Water Authority $188.3 million plus interest for illegal water rates MWD charged from 2011 to 2014. Judge Curtis E.A. Karnow also determined that MWD has been under-calculating the Water Authority's preferential right to MWD water supplies by improperly excluding hundreds of millions of dollars of payments made by the Water Authority.
The final ruling affirms the tentative ruling Judge Karnow issued July 15. In his final ruling, Judge Karnow rejected all of MWD's defenses to the Water Authority's legal challenges, including the contention that the Water Authority consented to being overcharged by the Los Angeles-based wholesaler. Instead, he said the Water Authority is entitled to the damages it claimed -- four years of overpayments totaling $188.3 million, plus interest. If allowed to stand, MWD's overcharges would have exceeded $2 billion over 45 years. The Water Authority's Board of Directors already has determined that the agency will deduct its litigation expenses and return the remaining money to its 24 member agencies in proportion to their payment of MWD's illegal overcharges over the four years in dispute. MWD has said it will appeal, and that will delay refunding of the Water Authority's overpayments.
|
Water Authority Chair
Welcomes World to San Diego
Water Conference
International Desalination Association's
World Congress includes tours
of Carlsbad Desalination Project
Water Authority Board Chair Mark Weston on Monday welcomed an estimated 1,500 water industry experts from around the world to San Diego to open the International Desalination Association's World Congress on Desalination and Water Reuse.
The weeklong event features tours of the nearly completed Carlsbad Desalination Project, which will provide the San Diego region with 50 million gallons of water a day by late fall as the nation's largest and most technologically advanced seawater desalination project. Poseidon Water, the project's private developer, is testing the plant and seeking state certification for commercial operations.
For more information about the International Desalination Association, go to idadesal.org. For more information about the Carlsbad Desalination Project, visit the project website at carlsbaddesal.com or the Water Authority's website at sdcwa.org.
|
