OJAI : Sewer Rate Increase Is Expected in July

New rules on sewage treatment designed to reduce health dangers to those who come in contact with the Ventura River could raise sewer rates by at least 53% in July for 12,000 customers of the Ojai Valley Sanitary District.

The lowest average monthly household fee of $10.57, for example, would go up to $16.18 under a proposal the district is considering to raise revenues for state-mandated improvements to its treatment plant. The district now discharges 2 million gallons of effluent a day into the river.

“The impact on the residents here is going to be very significant,” District General Manager Eric Oltmann said. “We’re certainly sorry that the costs have to be passed on to the residents in such a brutal fashion but there doesn’t look like there is any other alternative.”

Oltmann presented the rate proposal, which he said may be a minimum increase, to the sewer district’s board of directors Monday night as part of the agency’s preliminary budget for the 1990-91 fiscal year. The entire proposed $3.8-million budget was referred to the board’s budget committee for further study.

A public hearing is expected to be held on the new rates in late May, Oltmann said. The board will adopt the final budget in June.

The district lacks specific information about how much money will be needed to meet its new requirements until the State Water Resources Control Board issues the district’s plant operating permit, Oltmann said. The Los Angeles-based board will hold a public hearing on the permit in Ventura in late May, Oltmann said.

District officials know that installing tertiary filters is one of the requirements, Oltmannsaid, but it is unknown whether further steps--such as the construction of cooling towers--will be needed. Those could add up to $3 million in costs, he said.

“Since we don’t have the permit, that complicates our budgeting,” he said, but based on similar facilities, he estimates the cost will run between $5 million and $7 million.

“We’re going to have to go into debt. I’ve made an estimate that at $5 million, it would be about $600,000 a year, which works out at about $5 a month increase per customer,” Oltmann said.

“We don’t know the best way of entering into that debt,” he said, “whether it be a special assessment district, a revenue bond or certificates of participation.” Each debt method has different pay-back methods. While some are based on rates, others are not.

The district’s past permit expired last August. It has been operating under a temporary permit, which allows it four years to meet the new requirements. The Friends of the Ventura River, among other organizations, are pushing for the extension to be shortened to two years, which would cause further hardship on the district, Oltmann said.