"Twelve percent of the state's population [owe] this $1 billion of utility debt," said Glenn Farrel, director of government relations at the San Diego County Water Authority. "That's a lot of people living at the edge."
Farrel estimates that there is $50 million of water bill debt locally due to COVID-19. Numbers reported to the state by water districts in San Diego show almost 70,000 accounts were delinquent as of October 2020.
"We have a major problem," said Farrel.
There are 24 members of the SDCWA, including the Padre Dam Municipal Water District, which serves a large portion of East County, from Alpine to El Cajon. Carlisle said only 0.5% of water bills are delinquent typically, but during the pandemic, that figure has risen to 3.4%.