Your Water Bill
Who Receives a PV Water Bill
If you own a well to extract groundwater within the Agency boundaries or if you use delivered water from a turnout in the Coastal Distribution System (CDS), you will receive a bill from PV Water. Charges for groundwater well extraction are augmentation charges. Bills are computed quarterly: March, June, September and December. Rural residential customers recevie a bill once a year, in July for the previous year.
How to Pay Your Bill
PV Water accepts payments by cash, check or credit card. Credit card payments can be made on our website (click the Pay Online Button above), in person and over the phone. Mail check payments to or in person: 36 Brennan St, Watsonville, CA 95076. Our office hours our Monday through Friday, 8am to 5pm. Closed legal holidays.
How your Bill is Calculated
Your bill is calculated based on your Water User Category rate and how much water you use. If you have a metered well, your bill is calculated as the amount of water you pump times your rate per acre-foot (AF). If you do not have a metered well, your bill is calculated as an estimation based on your type of water usage. See below to find information on water user categories. Rural residential charges are based on an estimated usage of 0.5 acre-feet per year per residence.
Current Rates
Currents rates were determined through a community-wide Proposition 218 process in 2015. These rates were supported by a cost of service analysis which was finalized in January 2015. For a summary of current rates, click here.
Augmentation Charge
State law authorizes the Agency to levy a groundwater augmentation charge on the extraction of groundwater from groundwater wells within the Agency in order to pay the costs of purchasing, capturing, storing and distributing supplemental water, and to pay for the activities required to prepare and implement the Agency’s 2014 Basin Management Plan Update (Basin Management Plan or BMP). Supplemental water means water imported into the basin, conserved floodwater, and recycled water. The Agency has levied an augmentation charge since 1994.
Augmentation charges are levied against every owner of real property within the Agency with a groundwater well (excluding the area east of the San Andreas Fault, which is unaffected by the Pajaro basin overdraft and seawater intrusion).
Water User Categories
Metered Water Users - Inside the Delivered Water Zone (IDWZ). Includes owners of municipal, industrial, agricultural, and other wells with meters located within the delivered water zone. These owners and their tenants have access to turnouts on the Coastal Distribution System (CDS), the Agency’s supplemental water supply.
Metered Water Users - Outside the Delivered Water Zone (ODWZ). Includes owners of municipal, industrial, agricultural and other wells with meters located outside of the delivered water zone, this group has no access to Delivered Water turnouts. Water consumption by all municipal water users is metered and charged to the municipality.
Delivered Water Users - Includes property owners and tenants located within the delivered water zone who receive water distributed through the CDS. All consumption of delivered water is metered and available at properties that have a CDS turnout. Use of this water requires a permit and is for agricultural use only. For a permit application, click 
here.
Unmetered Water Users - Includes all wells that are not metered, particularly owners of rural residential water wells without meters. Rural residential water users that are not metered are currently billed based on an estimated use which has been determined as 0.5 AF per year for the average rural residential household. Larger residential, potable water purveyors (municipal, mutual), industrial, agricultural, and other wells producing at least 10 AF per year or more, and wells serving 15 or more connections are required to be metered. If a meter is required but not installed, the water usage will be estimated and carry additional penalty charges.
How to Read your Bill
Bills are sent to well owners, property owners where turnouts are located, and as a courtesy to tenants if requested. If you have a meter, you will see consumption information below the header “Meter Reading.” Your current charges will be based on your meter consumption times your rate. Below current charges is a listing of recent activity including payments and adjustments for interest if needed. For rural residential users, bills are mailed annually in June for the previous fiscal year (July 1 – June 30). Current charges will show Water Use Type as Rural Residential user with a number showing how many households are getting water from the well being billed.
How to Read your Meter
Reading a water meter is similar to reading the odometer and speedometer in your car, which show you how many miles and at what speed you are going. By reading your meter you can determine how much and at what flow rate the water is used, which can help you understand your bill, track pumping costs, determine flow rates, and discover ways to conserve water. To determine water use for a period of time between two meter readings, subtract the earlier reading from the later reading. (Example: July 31 reading minus June 30 reading = amount of water used in July.) Meters installed by Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency (PV Water) typically read in units of acre-feet or gallons, and sometimes have a flow rate indicator in gallons per minute. If your meter reads in acre-feet, pay close attention to where the decimal is. 1 acre-foot (picture an acre of land covered by 1 foot of water) is equal to 325,851 gallons. Click here for examples of common types of flow meters installed on wells by PV Water and how to read them. The type of flow meter on your well is determined by the size of your pipe and other site conditions.
Unclaimed Money
Click here for a list of unclaimed money. The disbursements are unclaimed by the listed payees and held by PV Water. If you have a claim against these funds, please contact PV Water, 36 Brennan St, Watsonville, CA 95076, phone (831) 722-9292. Proper proof of claim and current identification must be provided before funds will be released. Funds not claimed within 45 days of being advertised become the property of PV Water. Click here for a claim form. This notice and its contents are in accordance with California Government Code Section 50050.