Council Supports Increased Water Rates to Pay for 3 Pipelines : Reclamation: A report says a raise of $2 to $3 a month per customer would finance a sewage-treatment system for irrigation of public facilities and businesses.

A majority of the Glendale City Council favors increasing water rates to pay for three pipelines to transport treated sewage water to Glendale parks, schools and businesses for irrigation.

In a report issued last week, city water officials suggested a bond issue or water-rate surcharge could raise roughly $14 million to build the pipelines, which could save nearly 700 million gallons of water dumped each year into the Los Angeles River. The water saved could then be used for irrigation and industrial use, the officials said.

Either a bond issue or a monthly surcharge would raise residents’ monthly water bills $2 to $3 a month. But a bond issue would provide construction money for all the pipelines at once, while a surcharge would raise less cash up front, providing pay-as-you-go financing, city officials told the council.

Council members Jerold Milner, Carl Raggio and Ginger Bremberg said they favored a bond issue, which would enable the city to develop the reclamation system more quickly than would a surcharge. Mayor Larry Zarian and Councilman Richard Jutras said they have not yet taken a position.

The city’s Water Department has not borrowed to finance a project in about 10 years and has no outstanding loans, said Public Service Director Michael Hopkins, who presented the report to the council.

“I really think we need to move ahead aggressively to use this reclaimed water,” Milner said. “We need to deviate from our longstanding process of not bonding.”

City Finance Director Brian Butler said, however, he believes a bond issue is not necessary for the project. Enough money can be raised through various city funds and a small rate increase to pay for all the pipelines at once, Butler said.

If officials “started construction tomorrow and needed the $14 million, we could accommodate it,” he said. “Internally, the city can finance the project without having to go to external investors for the money.”

The council already has allocated $1 million in capital improvement funds for the three pipelines. Water fund reserves, a roughly 6% increase in the average monthly water bill of $25 and a line of credit from the city could provide the rest of the money, Butler said.

The council agreed to hire a financial consultant to study funding options. A proposal will be submitted to the council in about six months, officials said.

The use of reclaimed water is expected to help Glendale survive mandatory water conservation rules scheduled to begin next month throughout Southern California, Hopkins said.

Beginning Feb. 1, the Metropolitan Water District will require its customers to cut water use 10% to 30%. Glendale, which gets 90% of its water from the MWD, will have to reduce its share by 15%, Hopkins said.

City officials are increasing water use from local wells and urging residents to conserve to meet that requirement. Glendale reduced its water consumption by 7% in December under a voluntary conservation plan initiated last May by the council, said Donald Froelich, water services administrator.

Using treated sewage water pumped through the pipelines could reduce Glendale’s dependence on MWD supplies by another 10%, Froelich said.

“It’s almost a motherhood and apple pie type of thing, nowadays,” he said. “Hardly anyone disputes the need for using reclaimed water, and the thing is, the water’s free. All we have to pay for is the facilities to get it to the user.”

About 20 million gallons of water treated each day at the Los Angeles-Glendale Water Reclamation Plant, on Colorado Street west of the Golden State Freeway, goes down the river to the ocean, he said.

Reclaimed water is not suitable for drinking. But the city can sell the water for industrial and irrigation use at 25% below the cost of regular water, Froelich said.

One of the three proposed pipelines would provide about 1.7 million gallons of reclaimed water for irrigation at Brand Park, several other parks and three schools.

The second pipeline would target the Verdugo Hills area, delivering irrigation water to 19 parks, schools and businesses, including Glendale Community College and Oakmont Country Club. The third would take water to School Canyon Park and golf course and several parks and schools.

“When we get the reclamation system going, we’ll save water equivalent to that used by 2,600 households a year,” Froelich said. “We would hope that over time we could expand our use of reclaimed water even more.”

Glendale already uses 100 million gallons of reclaimed water a year to cool its power plant and sells nearly 17 million gallons a year to the California Department of Transportation to irrigate nearby freeway landscaping.

One new pipeline already approved by the City Council is expected to be completed this fall. The $2.5-million line, a joint project between Glendale and Los Angeles, will deliver more than 2 million gallons of water to Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Elysian Park and other sites.

Glendale will pay $1.5 million for the pipeline, while Los Angeles will pay $1 million plus any additional costs, Froelich said.

The other three pipelines could take three to 10 years to build, depending on how they are financed. City officials had hoped to obtain state loans to pay for the pipelines, but the failure in November of the 1990 Water Reclamation Bond Act made that only a remote possibility, Hopkins said.