300% rate hike or no water: Diablo Grande crisis deepens
Residents of Diablo Grande in Stanislaus County are facing a steep water rate hike—from $145 to $569 a month—or risk losing service by June 30. The Western Hills Water District says it owes $13 million to the Kern County Water Agency and hasn’t made a payment since 2019. Many homeowners, especially retirees, say they’re being blindsided. With no help from the county or state, local leaders say the community must vote to approve the hike or face shutoff.
00:00A Central Valley community is facing a dire deadline, either approve a massive water rate hike or have their supply shut off.
00:07Diablo Grande, once envisioned as a golf resort paradise, is now at risk of going dry.
00:12Avastin's Luke Cleary has the story tonight.
00:17A patchwork of green in the Stanislaus County foothills, the resort community of Diablo Grande is now at a crossroads.
00:26The families who bought into life here at Diablo Grande bought into a dream.
00:32These hillside views, vineyards, golf courses, all of it built on a simple promise, a steady supply of water.
00:41The sunburned hills surrounding the development offer a warning.
00:45This is what happens if the water pumped from the aqueduct stops.
00:49And now the Western Hills Water District is proposing a massive rate hike just to keep the taps open.
00:56We're on a shoestring here, and I can barely keep this district running and keeping clean water to everybody.
01:02President Mark Kovic faced a packed clubhouse in early June to deliver the uncomfortable message, pay more or risk losing your water.
01:11The Western Hills Water District supplies Diablo Grande with water from the Kern County Water Agency.
01:22In a letter, the Kern County Water Agency warned it will cut off service June 30th, unless Diablo Grande property owners approve the hike from $145 a month to $569.
01:33Well, they say maybe they want a little more, maybe $700, $800, that's what's scaring me.
01:40It's scaring all of us.
01:42Okay, then there's no answers, though, is what I'm trying to figure out, the frustration.
01:45How do you feel like this is going?
01:47Not well.
01:49Debbie Antigua heads the action committee organizing public meetings.
01:53The residents are very concerned.
01:55They don't know whether or not they're going to have water.
01:56The Kern County Water Agency says it's ending its contract with Western Hills because the district owes the agency more than $13 million and hasn't made a payment since 2019.
02:10The letter states that if the rate hike passes, Kern will keep the water flowing until December 31st to give Western Hills time to find another supplier.
02:20You keep saying something about it's good until December.
02:23Retired nurse Lydia Stewart is one of many asking hard questions.
02:28We're on Social Security limited income.
02:30What are we supposed to do?
02:33She and her husband James say they put their life savings into a new home here in 2018.
02:39What was that like for you?
02:40A dream because I've worked so hard.
02:42I've taken care of so many people.
02:43But that dream home now hangs in the balance.
02:47They won't be able to sustain the higher rate for long on top of the mortgage and other bills.
02:52We only have a certain income.
02:54That's why we picked up here because we could afford just that.
02:57We didn't expect this big lump sum to be dumped on us.
03:02We're victims in all of this, right?
03:05We've paid our bill.
03:06Katie Whitney and her husband moved to Diablo Grande in 2012 to retire.
03:11The dream was to, you know, move up here, someday retire and, you know, play golf every day.
03:17The rate hike will be uncomfortable.
03:20What's unthinkable is losing water altogether.
03:23When you're thinking about retiring and there's a possibility that your home won't be livable,
03:28it's a little bit more than your dream slipping away, right?
03:32There's a feeling of, yeah, how did we get here?
03:38How in the world did we get here?
03:40And not on the fault of us.
03:42We've paid everything we've had to pay.
03:44It was the stuff that happened before we moved here.
03:47What happened before is a long story.
03:52This was Diablo Grande in 2016, a world-class golf resort community built to expand.
04:00And here it is today.
04:02The golf courses closed.
04:04The grass dried out.
04:07And of the 5,000 homes promised, only a fraction, around 600, were ever built.
04:13You bought this place in 2011.
04:16What was it like?
04:162011.
04:17It was awesome.
04:19Everything was green.
04:21Doug Moore bought a home overlooking the 13th hole.
04:24This is what it looked like when we moved in.
04:26It was a dream location for us.
04:28He spent years trying to help other homeowners understand how it came to this.
04:34The first instinct they had when they see a rate increase that's triple what they were paying,
04:39okay, is one of anger, you know, and it hit them by surprise.
04:43I wasn't surprised.
04:45I've been following this for years.
04:46The Western Hills Water District blames the former developers for the millions in unpaid
04:52water bills to Kern County Water Agency.
04:55Initially, the developers subsidized the cost of water to boost growth.
04:59But when the housing project stalled and the developers effectively went out of business, the payments stopped and the debts piled up.
05:07I worry about it every day.
05:09I worry about it every day.
05:10It keeps me up at night.
05:11With time running out, the new board now scrambling for a new water source for Diablo Grande, asking state and local leaders for help.
05:20Everybody is just very frustrated that nobody wants to do anything.
05:25The answers we get is, you're on your own.
05:27The answers we get is, you're on your own.
05:28Stanislaus County officials say they can't intervene either.
05:31It is an issue that must be handled here locally with the local district.
05:38You know, that's a tough answer.
05:43That's a tough message.
05:46And Debbie Antigua says her calls to the state have led nowhere.
05:50We've called for the community to, you know, email all these agencies and they have.
05:57And they just, well, yeah, we're forwarding you on to another agency.
06:02OK, which one?
06:03Because nobody's coming.
06:04It's a common question here.
06:08Is anyone coming to help?
06:10We also reached out to the state.
06:12The Department of Water Resources and the governor's office say this is a local matter and the state has no official role in resolving it.
06:20It's very hard to believe that, you know, there isn't an entity that can come forward and help us find a solution.
06:27Find a way out of this.
06:29Just work with us and find a solution is what we're asking, and they won't even talk to us.
06:34The resort community built on a dream in the rugged California foothills, now fighting to stay afloat.
06:41For now, the water is still flowing, but at what cost and for how long?
06:48In Diablo Grande, Luke Clary, ABC 10.
06:54The Western Hills Water District is in talks with the Patterson Irrigation District about a potential water supply solution, but a new pipeline could be years away.
07:05The rate hike decision comes on Saturday, so I think it goes out saying we are going to continue following this story.
