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Property Owners in Monterey Peninsula Water Management District Likely to Get Refunds in 2026
You won't find any references to this on the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District (MPWMD) website, but you may have seen a "Legal Notice" from the water district arrive recently in your mail. It states that "If You Paid the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District's Water Supply Charge on Your Property Tax Bill Between December 1, 2022 and July 1, 2025, A Class Action Settlement May Affect Your Rights."
This notice is legitimate. And yes, if you owned property within the boundaries of the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District (MPWMD) in this time period, you probably paid this illegal charge. The upcoming settlement will get you a refund.
For a decade, the Monterey Peninsula Taxpayers Association has claimed that after MPWMD reinstated a "User Fee" in 2016, the water district was no longer authorized to collect the full "Water Supply Charge" it imposed in 2012. But MPWMD continued to collect both charges in full. In 2021, the Monterey Peninsula Taxpayers Association declared it had enough of the water district's "double dipping" for taxpayer money and sued the water district to stop collection of the Water Supply Charge. (The case isHeuer III v. Monterey Peninsula Water Management District, Case No. 24CV002642, and you can look at case documents at https://www.monterey.courts.ca.gov/online-services/case-search.)
In response to the lawsuit, the water district board decided to fight it in court. A Monterey County Superior Court judge ruled in favor of the Monterey Peninsula Taxpayers Association. MPWMD appealed the decision to the California Sixth District Court of Appeal, which affirmed the Monterey County Superior Court decision and sent the matter back for further action. Now a settlement agreement has been negotiated that resolves the lawsuit with a refund process to property owners. There will be a court hearing on December 19, 2025 for final approval of the settlement. Property owners don't need to do anything if they want to be part of the settlement and receive the refund. A typical residential customer will receive an estimated refund of $43.41, and the MPWMD will need to refund $2.6 million.
Property owners who want to be excluded from the settlement so they can pursue their own lawsuit against the district concerning the illegal charge need to go to the website www.wsc-settlement.com. Property owners who want to be excluded (opt out) from the settlement or object to the terms of the settlement should also go to www.wsc-settlement.com. You do not need to opt out of the settlement to object to it. The deadline to submit objections or request exclusion is October 14, 2025.
Although your Chamber did not take a position or file any briefs in this case, we believe on principle that government officials should implement taxes, fees, and other charges in a way that is open, transparent, accountable, and without ambiguity. In this case, the courts served as a check and balance against our water district leadership, which sought to collect more money from property owners in a way that violated the law.
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