Planned Sewer Rate Raises Scaled Back

FOUNTAIN VALLEY — A plan by the Orange County Sanitation Districts to sharply raise sewer service charges has been scaled back in an effort to ease the sticker-shock of county residents.

The new rate schedule, which the agency’s board will consider Wednesday, calls for smaller rate hikes in some parts of the county than officials originally proposed. Nevertheless, some residents and businesses would still see their sewer bills double over the next eight years.

In portions of Santa Ana, Costa Mesa and Orange, for example, annual sewer bills would rise from $83.24 this year to $145.47 in 2002 and $192.30 in 2005. Under the original plan, the rates would rise to $200 by 2002 and $215 by 2005.

“We felt what we had [originally proposed] was too high,” said Santa Ana Councilwoman Patricia McGuigan, a member of the sanitation board. “We are trying to ease the pain.”

Santa Ana resident Ed McKie said the scaling back is a step in the right direction, but the proposed rates are still too high.

“Many residents in the city are just getting by, and for some of them, this won’t help,” McKie said. “We don’t have the luxury to pay double the price.”

Officials insist that the sewage rate increases must be imposed to bring in the revenue needed to pay for improvements to aging sewer lines and waste-water treatment facilities, as well as to meet strict environmental rules.

The sanitation districts, which serve more than 1.5 million residents living north of the El Toro Y, now treat about 240 million gallons of sewage a day before dumping most of the treated effluent five miles offshore in the Pacific Ocean.

By 2005, the agency expects to handle 300 million gallons of waste a day, which would require construction of a new water reclamation plant or a new outflow system that would run from existing treatment plants to an ocean discharge point. Either project would cost about $200 million.

The agency sets sewer rates in eight districts, each of which charges property owners a different rate based on several factors, including elevation and the age of the sewer system. Six of the districts would see rate increases under the proposal, and three would see their charges double over the next eight years.

Districts that scaled back their proposed increases will make up for the reduced revenue by borrowing more money and delaying some projects, officials said.

McGuigan said her central county district’s sewer systems are in desperate need of improvements because of their age and heavy use. Ratepayers in the district shoulder a disproportionately heavy burden because many of the government agencies in the Santa Ana Civic Center don’t pay sewer fees.

“I believe very strongly that there are a lot of improvements that must be done,” she said. “But we should increase the rates more gradually. . . . I haven’t gotten much flak yet. But I’m sure I’d hear from people once the bills went out.”

While most future charges would go down under the revised proposal, ratepayers in a Huntington Beach district would eventually pay more. Under the original schedule, the annual rate would go from $60 this year to $100 in 1999, $140 in 2002 and $155 in 2005. Under the new schedule, the rates would be $90 in 1999 and $125 in 2002, but $165 in 2005.