Burbank Sues L.A. Over Limits on Sewer Use

The city of Burbank has filed suit against the city of Los Angeles for trying to limit Burbank’s use of the troubled Los Angeles sewer system.

Senior Assistant Burbank City Atty. Juli C. Scott said Monday that attorneys for the city of Los Angeles were “grandstanding” when they filed a lawsuit in February against Burbank and four other cities for failing to comply with a 1988 ordinance.

The ordinance required the cities to limit new building permits to restrict increases in sewage flowing into the Los Angeles system. The cities were also required to file periodic reports on new development.

In filing a countersuit in Los Angeles Superior Court, Burbank became the first city to formally challenge the ordinance.

“The city of Los Angeles is trying to divert attention from where the problem really lies,” Scott said. She said Los Angeles has not managed its sewage system properly. “They think they’re going to remedy the problem by going after these smaller cities,” she said. “What they’re trying to do is unconstitutional. They have no jurisdiction over us.”

Burbank officials said their city has a contract allowing it to send 10 million gallons of sewage a day to the Los Angeles Hyperion treatment plant, which has a capacity of 480 million gallons per day. Burbank now sends an average of 7 million gallons of sewage each day.

Los Angeles officials have told the cities that they must reduce the amount of sewage sent through the system, even though they may not have reached their contract levels.

Scott charged the city of Los Angeles with breach of contract, illegally trying to exert control over Burbank’s development and inverse condemnation. Burbank is seeking $100 million in damages.

Assistant Los Angeles City Atty. John F. Haggerty said in response that Los Angeles had a right to require controls on development in smaller cities to reduce the amount of sewage coming into Los Angeles.

“True, these cities have certain capacity rights, but they don’t own the system,” Haggerty said. He added that Los Angeles has a legal right to protect the sewer system from a breakdown due to excessive growth.

Reports Required

Los Angeles last year passed an ordinance to require all the cities to file quarterly reports containing information on new development, the amount of building permits issued and the amount of sewage expected from those developments.

Haggerty said the cities were ordered to not issue building permits that would result in a quarterly sewage increase in excess of about 0.33% of the daily average levels between 1987 and 1988.

But officials of Burbank, along with the cities of Beverly Hills, El Segundo, Glendale and Culver City, said they would not file the reports.

Attorneys for Los Angeles filed a lawsuit to force the cities to comply with the ordinance, Haggerty said. The city of Beverly Hills was the only threatened municipality to obey the ordinance after the suit was filed, he said.