Irish Hills Mutual Water Company

215 Via Laguna Vista
San Luis Obispo, CA 93405
805-546-1305
email: info@irishhillswater.org
web: irishhillswater.org

October 27, 2024

Welcome to the Irish Hills Mutual Water Company (IHMWC)! The information in this letter is provided to assist potential buyers, new homeowners, and current homeowners with an understanding of the operation of the company.

Overview

We are a non-profit corporation formed to serve the member homes with water. Every property owner is automatically a shareholder in the IHMWC, with one share and one vote at our annual meetings.

The day-to-day operations are overseen by a 5-member Board of Directors elected by the shareholders, from which the officers are elected.

Routine maintenance, water meter reading, and lab testing are currently managed by Nviro, which is a subcontractor for the IHMWC.

There are 58 member lots in the Water Company, 30 in Valle Vista Ranch, 20 in Emerald Hills, 6 large lots on the south side of Via Laguna Vista, and 2 lots on the north side of Via Laguna Vista at the intersection with Valle Vista Pl. Each lot holds a membership in the Water Company that transfers with the title of the lot.

Please note that the homes west of us on Valle Vista and Arroyo Lane have their own water company (Bear Valley) and are not a part of the IHMWC, although we share underground supplies with them.

Water Supply

We have 6 production wells and 120,000 gallons of storage. Our storage tanks and treatment facilities are at the top of 225 Via Laguna Vista. We treat some wells for iron and manganese, and chlorinate the water to disinfect it. Overall, the water quality is excellent, but hard.

Billing

Water meters are read and bills sent out every 2 months, in January, March, May, July, September, and November. Bills are due upon receipt. There are 2 parts to your bill. The first is an assessment, currently $35 per month or $70 per 2-month billing cycle. This amount covers our maintenance and replacement fund, and is due whether or not there is any water use or even if your lot does not yet have a house on it.

Water use is measured in cubic feet, and billed at $0.0275 per cubic foot. Per our bylaws, this amount is calculated to cover our production cost. The penalty rate for excessive usage (above 53,000 cubic feet per year) is billed at an additional $0.06 per cubic foot, more than twice the normal rate. See more information on excessive usage below. These rates may change over time.

Homeowner Responsibilities

Homeowners are responsible for the shutoff valve, water meter, pipes and plumbing on their property. Any repairs or modifications, including underground water lines for landscaping, fall under the homeowner’s jurisdiction. IHMWC's responsibility is to provide water service to the meter. Beyond the meter is managed solely by the homeowner. IHMWC cannot be held responsible for excess water usage beyond the meter.

If your water meter fails, you can purchase a replacement from the IHMWC at cost. The IHMWC’s subcontractor or a licensed plumber can be hired to install the replacement meter.

If there is a well or well-related infrastructure on your property, it is the responsibility of the IHMWC to maintain, not the homeowner’s. The IHMWC and their subcontractor will need access to the well and related equipment.

The IHMWC is responsible for any fire hydrants found near the homeowner’s property.

Before any digging on your property, call 811 to notify Underground Service Alert (USA) so they can coordinate marking the locations of any utilities, including water lines.

Water Use Limitations

As a result of Environmental Impact Reports for the Emerald Hills and Valle Vista Ranch projects, the underground water supplies for the IHMWC are some of the most well studied and quantified in the county. Because of this, the county has previously imposed an allocation on the Water Company of 1.22 acre feet of water use per lot per year. In real world terms you may be more familiar with, this works out to 1,089 gallons per day averaged over a year. It’s a lot of water.

A user exceeding the allocation on an annual basis triggers a rather severe penalty. The intent of the penalty is not to make money for the water company; it is to encourage wise water use and conservation. We live in a Mediterranean climate, dry in the summer and rainy in the winter, and we depend on those winter rains to recharge the ground water for the next summer’s use.  The City of San Luis Obispo will not annex us, and we cannot get State Water. We are, as it were, on a water island.

Indeed, the County Conditions of Approval for the Valle Vista Ranch project (formerly COG Partnership, Tract 2270) imposed several conditions to protect the quantity and quality of our water supply. These include but are not limited to native or drought tolerant landscaping, irrigation use calculations, a septic system maintenance program, and a prohibition on self-regenerating water softeners which discharge salt brine.

Normally a household will use about 50 gallons of water per day per person including drinking, showers, toilets and laundry. Landscaping is by far the largest demand on the system, and lawns in particular require large amounts of water. When you plan your landscaping, keep these factors in mind so that you do not find yourself in the position of having to tear out some high water utilization landscaping to replace it if you exceed your water allotment.

As we continue to have off and on drought years, all members are encouraged to conserve water. It is likely that we will be formally adopting state water conservation recommendations in the near future.

Water Company Web Page

In order to help keep everyone informed of Water Company news, help them keep track of their water use, and to cut the copying and postage expenses for the company, we have created a Water Company website, https://irishhillswater.org. There you will find notices required by the County Health Department, Water Company updates, water use tables and neighborhood weather conditions.

Emergency Contact

The Water Company maintains a 24-hour answering service at 805-546-1305. You may also email questions to the Water Company at info@irishhillswater.org.