At the recent celebration of Box Springs Mutual Water Company’s completion of a new 1.3-million-gallon water storage reservoir, Dave Armstrong, General Manager at South Mesa Water Company spoke about the importance and efficiency of community-owned Mutual Water Companies.
What makes Mutual Water Companies different from bigger utilities? And, you know, why do they deserve this patent for? And what do they do to get the same support?
Well, Mutual Water Companies are the bedrock of water in the state of California, right? So we know that they’re community-owned. Water came to a lot of these areas. They needed water in communities where there was no other access to water.
And so it was formed in mountain communities, little communities. And we have shown that with self-governance, with our shareholders being board members, that we can operate financially at a much better rate than a larger system. And with limited staff.
So we only charge for the cost of service. So it’s really, I think it’s a more efficient way of running a water system.