Billing and Customer Service

Beginning in 2017, the District contracted with San Joaquin County to collect the District’s flat rate charge and groundwater recharge charge. Collection of charges, including past-due charges from previous years, is the responsibility of San Joaquin County and the first installment of charges is delinquent if not paid by the customer to the county by December 10. The second installment is delinquent if not paid by April 10. The District denies water service to any land having outstanding flat rate charges.

If you receive a bill for water usage from the District and do not utilize irrigation water, please access the Irrigation Service Abandonment Packet. This document requires notarized signatures from all individuals holding title to the property along with an accurate copy of the legal description of the property. Agricultural parcels over 10 acres may apply for this agreement but may be subject to a water recharge fee. See “Additional Billing Rules” below for more information on the recharge fee. The agreement requires approval of the District’s Board of Directors. You will be charged a $100 processing fee and be required to remove all facilities used to serve the subject property at your expense.

SSJID’s volumetric charges are based on acre-feet of water delivered as recorded for each irrigation event by division managers, who record quantities of water used by each parcel of land.

Water usage is determined by the flow rate multiplied by the duration of the water run. Flow rate is determined on the basis of the predetermined capacities of gates, laterals and turnouts throughout the distribution system.

Electronic flow meters are installed at strategic locations on the District’s distribution laterals to provide staff with an additional reference when determining flow rates. Doppler meters are used to compute flow rates for multiple valve and orifice gate situations. Magnetic meters are used to measure volumes where pumps are used. Downloads from the electronic meters to the District’s computer system are used to double-check usage recorded by division managers.

Senate Bill X7-7 (SBX7-7) was adopted in 2009. It requires that all California irrigation districts, including SSJID, take actions to measure, report and bill their customers for the delivery of actual volumes of water. The District must measure the volume of water and has adopted a pricing structure based at least in part on the quantity of water delivered.

The District denies water service to any land having outstanding volumetric charges in excess of $10 for 45 days. At the conclusion of each irrigation season, all charges must be paid in full — even if the balance is less than $10 — in order to receive water the following irrigation season.

Parcels that receive pressurized water from the District’s Irrigation Enhancement Project, commonly referred to as Division 9, are subject to a fixed charge of $38 per acre per year, plus the volumetric charge of $5 per acre-foot, or $12.50 per acre-foot, plus a pressurization service charge of $54.49 per acre-foot.

These customers will be billed monthly for the pressurization service and must pay the bills within 30 days of the “Bill Date” to continue receiving pressurized water.

The pressurization service charge of $50 per acre-foot, including a schedule for annual adjustments effective for the years 2022-2025, was approved by the Board of Directors on January 12, 2021 after a public hearing held pursuant to the Proposition 218 proceeding the District began in November 2020.  The pressurization service charge and annual adjustments are as follows:

Pressurized Water Service Charge, effective March 1, 2021:  $50 per acre-foot; consisting of $38 per acre-foot Electricity Cost Recapture and a $12 per acre-foot Provision for Capital Assets.

Pressurized Water Service Charge, effective April 1, 2022:  $52 per acre-foot; consisting of $39 per acre-foot Electricity Cost Recapture and a $13 per acre-foot Provision for Capital Assets.

Pressurized Water Service Charge, effective April 1, 2023:  $52 per acre-foot; consisting of $38 per acre-foot Electricity Cost Recapture and a $14 per acre-foot Provision for Capital Assets.

Pressurized Water Service Charge, effective March 1, 2024:  $54.49 per acre-foot; consisting of $40.04 per acre-foot Electricity Cost Recapture and a $14.45 per acre-foot Provision for Capital Assets.

Annual increase, or decrease, for inflation, or deflation, effective for the years 2022-2025:

Adjust the Electricity Cost Recapture portion of the service charge annually based on actual electricity costs incurred by the project in the previous year.  This is in alignment with the inflationary index that was in place for the years 2017-2020.

Adjust the Provision for Capital Assets part of the service charge annually according to changes in the California Consumer Price Index.

The basis of the pressurization service charge is to recover the cost to operate and maintain the Division 9 pressurization project facilities.  Revenues collected from the Provision for Capital Assets are held in the District’s Pressurized Water Service Capital Asset Reserve Fund; which is used only to assist in funding future improvements or replacements of capital assets for the Pressurized Water Service.

• For separate parcels used to raise commercially grown crops but that (a) choose not to use District water service, and (b) are the subject of an approved Irrigation Service Abandonment Agreement, there will continue to be an annual groundwater recharge fee for the benefits derived from groundwater recharge.
• Parcels that are not used to grow commercial crops or do not utilize SSJID water service may be exempted from the flat rate water charge and the groundwater recharge charge, provided that the owners of the parcels enter into an Irrigation Service Abandonment Agreement.