If at first you don't succeed....the Lamont Public Utilities District tried again to pass a water rate increase. This time, the proposed rate is about a 50% increase for most residents, with the district saying the average water bill in would rise to $39.98 per month.

But Lamont residents remain skeptical. And at a public hearing at at the David Head Center on the proposed increase, organizers with the Dolores Huerta Foundation dumped petitions bearing 15 hundred signatures opposing the rate increase.

"I hope you take these petitions into account and not just set them aside," said Maria Rocio Hernandez.

Others were less diplomatic. "You are mafias!" one speaker told the district board of directors.

Lamont Public Utilities District rescinded a rate increase in October after
an outpouring of protest by residents who were angered by what some said were tripling of their rates. Several presented bills showing
they owed $200 to $300 for one month.

The district says the rate increase is needed to fund several maintenance projects and to meet federal arsenic levels in several of its wells.

The district took no action at the public hearing Tuesday night. Instead, it will try and verify the signatures on the petitions and then decide what steps to take next.