Residents take aim at water company

Utility owned by homeowners criticized for worsening service and providing less transparency

Homeowners in the unincorporated community of Devore are all co-owners of the company that pipes water to their homes. But many in the community feel like owning a private utility is leaving them without a voice and substandard service.

The more-than-100-year-old Devore Water Co. is run by a board of nine directors, each of whom is elected annually. For the most part, residents say, that’s worked OK. But in the past three years, they say the board has become less transparent and provided worse service, even as bills have risen.

“Zero transparency. They have meetings without the complete board,” said Lori Mcintosh, who’s lived about a decade in Devore, which is near the bottom of the Cajon Pass. “They don’t allow shareholders in unless you fill out a form within 24 hours.”

Paying water bills has also gotten harder. According to the company website, the Devore Water Co. is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. But a sign on the door of its Kenwood Avenue office lists office hours of 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., from Monday through Thursday.

“You have to practically beg to get in to pay our bills, if that’s how you want to pay,” Mcintosh said.

The quality of the water is also going down, said Julie Costa, a Devore native who moved back six months ago.

“We’ve had a lot of issues with nitrates in our water,” Costa said. “They’ve already gotten a lot of loans from the state of California and ended up not doing the project to take the nitrates out. So we’re in the process of paying back that loan and now they’re taking out another loan for another company to handle the nitrates.”