A survey shows Monterey Peninsula’s might be the most expensive water in the country.

For California American Water customers on the Monterey Peninsula, the March 2017 water bill may have caused sticker shock – according to Cal Am, a household using 3,700 gallons per month saw their bills jump by almost 65 percent.

And according to a June survey by the nonprofit Food & Water Watch, a Cal Am customer using 5,000 gallons per month, based on rates in April 2017, may have the most expensive water in the country.

Food & Water Watch’s recent findings come after the nonprofit surveyed the country’s 500 largest water systems in 2015, and calculated the monthly water bill for a household using 5,000 gallons per month. In that survey, Cal Am’s Monterey service area had the ninth-most expensive water in the country.

Things have changed since then: Due to water conservation by drought-stricken customers in recent years, Cal Am lost tens of millions of dollars in projected revenue, which spurred the company to overhaul its rate structure.

Since the rate change, Public Water Now – a local group that advocates for public water ownership – reached out and asked FWW to do another survey.

“Until we have new water, we are playing with the devil.”

FWW agreed, and looked at the April 2017 rates for the water systems for the top 10 most expensive systems of their 2015 survey, using a baseline of 5,000 gallons per month. (In a four-person household, that amounts to about 40 gallons per day for each resident.)

Cal Am’s Monterey Peninsula service area came out on top at $100 a month. By comparison, the bills for the second – and third-most expensive systems, both in southern California, were $80 a month.

“Almost always, we see private companies charging more [than publicly owned systems],” says Mary Grant, FWW’s public water campaign director.

“Their argument is that you can’t compare water costs between systems,” Grant adds. That was an argument put forth by Cal Am attorney Joe Conner in a talk he gave at the Monterey Plaza Hotel on June 27.

With Public Water Now’s recent announcement that it will try to get a public buyout measure on the November 2018 ballot, Conner sought to explain the nuances of the eminent domain process to his audience and said, “When you’re taking over a good company, you have an uphill battle.”

John Narigi is general manager of the Plaza hotel and co-chair of the Coalition of Peninsula Businesses. Following Conner’s talk, he said his group worries about the impact a public buyout would have until the region secures a new water supply: “The biggest fear of the coalition is a [cease-and-desist-order]. Until we have some new water, we are playing with the devil.”

Ratepayers, however, have another thing to fear: Cal Am has applied to the California Public Utilities Commission for two more rate increases that would take effect from 2018-20, and which do not take into account costs will eventually get passed on to ratepayers from the proposed $322 million Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project.

That means the cost of what might already be the country’s most expensive water will only continue to rise.

“It’s lucrative to be in the water business,” says George Riley, a Public Water Now co-founder. Since 2010, Riley notes, the stock price for American Water – Cal Am’s parent company – has gone up by more than 300 percent.