Here's why we switched to Eastern MWD from the Water Authority

Detachment: an equally reliable supply of water at a lower cost

FAQs on Change in Water Wholesalers

Why did FPUD pursue this?

The primary reason was to help alleviate the growing pressures on water rates. The District used to buy all its water from the San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA), which in turn buys water from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (Metropolitan). Over half of the money you paid on your bill went to SDCWA. The District is in a unique location in the county and it actually didn't use SDCWA infrastructure, but because we bought our water from SDCWA, we still paid for all the SDCWA infrastructure in San Diego County. By instead buying our water from the Eastern Municipal Water District which serves Temecula, we could get the water from Metropolitan at a much lower price (~30% less), which is saving our customer millions of dollars a year.

What system improvements or new facilities were needed?

None. The only change was a paper change – who we pay for the water. We still get the same water from Metropolitan through the same pipes and facilities; we just pay significantly less.

Do we/will we have sufficient water to meet our needs?

Yes. The District has a local water supply – the Santa Margarita River – that provides additional water supplies, giving us our own water source. Metropolitan and Eastern have also invested significantly in storage and supply reliability. We occasionally anticipate the state will mandate restrictions in outdoor use during extended drought periods, but FPUD customers have shown they can meet these state mandates with adjustments in outdoor water use during drought emergencies.

When did the change in wholesalers occur?

The switch took place Jan. 1, 2024. This was a very complicated process. It required approval by the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO), a government agency, and then it went to an election of FPUD voters. Voters overwhemingly approved the switch to Eastern - by 92% The LAFCO commission is composed of elected and appointed officials, including two County Supervisors.

SDCWA was opposed to us leaving because they did not want to lose FPUD as its customer. SDCWA requested that LAFCO require us to continue to make payments to it, even if we stopped buying water from them, to make it “revenue neutral,” even though they would no longer be providing any services to our customers. Instead of relying on the current state law, which identifies that only the detaching customers vote, SDCWA wanted all 3.3 million SDCWA customers to vote to determine where the District’s 35,000 residents will get their water.