Balancing and Memorandum Account Recovery Procedures (Details) - USD ($) $ in Thousands	3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2016	Mar. 31, 2015	Jan. 05, 2015
Public Utilities, General Disclosures [Line Items]
Memorandum Account, Recovery Request			$ 976
Memorandum Accounts [Roll Forward]
Beginning Balance	$ 8,910	$ (1,377)
Revenue Increase(Reduction)	3,511	423
Refunds (Collections)	(518)	165
Surcharge Offset	(3,014)	0
Ending Balance	8,889	(789)
Balancing Accounts [Roll Forward]
Beginning Balance	36,296	48,438
Revenue Increase(Reduction)	(163)	1,144
Refunds (Collections)	(5,853)	(3,224)
Surcharge Offset	3,014	0
Ending Balance	33,294	46,358
Balancing and Memorandum Account [Roll Forward]
Beginning Balance	45,206	47,061
Revenue Increase (Reduction)	3,348	1,567
Refunds (Collections)	(6,371)	(3,059)
Surcharge Offset	0	0
Ending Balance	42,183	45,569
Net under-collected balancing and memorandum accounts	1,288
2014 WCMA
Memorandum Accounts [Roll Forward]
Beginning Balance	2,944	0
Revenue Increase(Reduction)	0	0
Refunds (Collections)	(517)	0
Surcharge Offset	0	0
Ending Balance	2,427	0
Balancing and Memorandum Account [Roll Forward]
WCMA Reserve	1,278	0
2015 WCMA
Memorandum Accounts [Roll Forward]
Beginning Balance	5,372	0
Revenue Increase(Reduction)	(20)	0
Refunds (Collections)	0	0
Surcharge Offset	0	0
Ending Balance	5,352	0
Balancing and Memorandum Account [Roll Forward]
WCMA Reserve	2,343	0
2016 WCMA
Public Utilities, General Disclosures [Line Items]
Memorandum Account, Recovery Request		3,014
Memorandum Accounts [Roll Forward]
Beginning Balance	0	0
Revenue Increase(Reduction)	3,014	0
Refunds (Collections)	0	0
Surcharge Offset	(3,014)	0
Ending Balance	0	0
Balancing and Memorandum Account [Roll Forward]
Surcharge Offset		3,014
Water supply costs
Balancing Accounts [Roll Forward]
Beginning Balance	2,771	890
Revenue Increase(Reduction)	(313)	(12)
Refunds (Collections)	(22)	(53)
Surcharge Offset	0	0
Ending Balance	2,436	825
Drought surcharges
Balancing Accounts [Roll Forward]
Beginning Balance	(359)	0
Revenue Increase(Reduction)	0	0
Refunds (Collections)	(3,167)	0
Surcharge Offset	3,014	0
Ending Balance	(512)	0
Pension
Balancing Accounts [Roll Forward]
Beginning Balance	(552)	1,412
Revenue Increase(Reduction)	280	(606)
Refunds (Collections)	(155)	(383)
Surcharge Offset	0	0
Ending Balance	(427)	423
2012 General Rate Case true-up
Balancing Accounts [Roll Forward]
Beginning Balance	33,070	44,400
Revenue Increase(Reduction)	0	1,876
Refunds (Collections)	(2,498)	(2,759)
Surcharge Offset	0	0
Ending Balance	30,572	43,517
All others
Memorandum Accounts [Roll Forward]
Beginning Balance	594	(1,377)
Revenue Increase(Reduction)	517	423
Refunds (Collections)	(1)	165
Surcharge Offset	0	0
Ending Balance	1,110	(789)
Balancing Accounts [Roll Forward]
Beginning Balance	1,366	1,736
Revenue Increase(Reduction)	(130)	(114)
Refunds (Collections)	(11)	(29)
Surcharge Offset	0	0
Ending Balance	$ 1,225	$ 1,593

This represents the under-collection or over-collection associated with expense changes and the revenue authorized by the CPUC to offset those expense changes. Pursuant to Section 792.5 of the California Public Utilities Code, a balancing account must be maintained for expense items for which revenue offsets have been authorized. Since the amounts in the balancing accounts must be approved by the CPUC before they can be incorporated into rates, the Company does not recognize balancing accounts in its revenue until CPUC approval occurs. It is typical for the CPUC to incorporate any over-collected and/or under-collected balances in balancing accounts into customer rates at the time rate decisions are made as part of the Company’s general rate case proceedings by assessing temporary surcredits and/or surcharges.

No definition available.