Amid handwringing at San Diego City Hall over next week’s vote to hike water rates, city analysts dropped a harrowing report revealing how easily the department that handles water and wastewater could collapse without them. … The analysts’ report says that if councilmembers refuse to raise rates at all, the Public Utilities Department would still have to make an immediate almost 30 percent cut to its budget. That would likely come in the form of staff layoffs and disruptions in water or wastewater service, which could be anything from unanswered customer service calls to more frequent water pipe breaks.

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