Water District Wants To Charge Me $3800 To Stop Using Their Service.

Hey Reddit, I'm seeking some advice regarding negotiations with my local water service. I moved onto a property in Southern California last year where the water rates are HIGH. I live in a fairly rural area, and my location has two water connections: residential water and agricultural (ag) water. My issue is with the ag connection. My property sits on what used to be an avocado orchard. For an unknown reason (cost, drought, idk) the orchard was cut down many years ago. Because the orchard is gone I have no need for ag water, and as it stands, I can't even turn on the ag water because the old irrigation system is full of leaks. Knowing this, the ag water main has been shut off at the road ever since I moved in. Despite not using a single unit of ag water in my time here, I have been paying a $74 monthly connection fee because the service is still technically provided to the property.

While I’m not happy about the $74 monthly charge, I understand that all utilities have a connection fee. What I don’t understand is how to become disconnected from this service (aka eliminate the ag water line and the $74 charge). After calling the water district they notified me that I would need to submit an application in-person to request the ag water’s discontinuation (the application fee is $230 btw). When I asked how much it would cost to actually do the disconnect, they told me I would need to submit an application so they could provide an estimate. After pressing them further, they admitted that AT THE LOW END it typically costs $3800 to do this removal. What?! I didn’t argue with them over the phone, but I was flabbergasted! I don’t understand why it would cost so much, or why they couldn’t simply lock or cap the water meter. Obviously they want to keep collecting that $74 monthly.

My question is: do I have any legal recourse here? I’m totally ignorant to regulations around water utilities, but I’m shocked that a service provider could essentially trap someone into a monthly fee by imposing a huge exit cost on their service. Please let me know if anyone has gone through a similar situation, or if you have unique knowledge about water/utility law in SoCal. For now I’ll be paying that $74 a month until I figure out a better course of action.