Audit to Clear Up View of System

The long-sought audit of the city’s waste-water system inches forward, about as sluggishly as the Los Angeles River in summer. Progress is slower than it ought to be, but the process is providing a valuable opportunity to evaluate the entire system.

City Council members Joel Wachs and Cindy Miscikowski this month recommended one of the seven management consulting firms that had submitted bids to handle the study. Their choice, Black & Veatch, had been picked by a panel of city analysts on the basis of a low hourly rate, the firm’s experience, and its proposed scope of work.

The audit is supposed to cost nearly $500,000 and last six months. The objective is to find out if the city’s Bureau of Sanitation charges residents a fair amount for the water they use. It’s not as simple a question as it appears.

A small number of San Fernando Valley residents long have complained they pay too much. Why should water used to fill a swimming pool or sprinkled on lawns be counted if it does not wind up in the sewers? The Bureau of Sanitation contends that it is doing the best it can, that it can’t measure every single gallon that goes into the sewer at every single house in the city. It does allow customers to install their own meters--if they pay for them.

Wachs has raised the specter of having the city turn its waste-water system over to a private contractor. He says the audit could provide information on the viability of that option. Privatization often looks like a solution that can save taxpayers money. But on closer examination, it can be a chimera.

After its bankruptcy in December 1994, Orange County looked at privatizing all sorts of services to get out of its financial crater. The county wound up keeping control of its agencies. However, a benefit of studying the option was making county department heads and workers take a closer look at what they were doing and how they might do it better.

The city’s Sanitation Bureau has trimmed its operating costs by 20% in the last several years. However, it still has an annual budget of $635 million. The waste-water system also faces a $1-billion bill in the next few years to replace aging sewer pipes.

Infrastructure repair is needed. The city cannot discharge incompletely treated sewage into the ocean. Sewer system improvements already have resulted in improving the quality of water in Santa Monica Bay.

Two years ago, the city overhauled the rate structure for waste water. Valley residents received a special dispensation for lots that often are larger than the citywide average. There also was an attempt to charge only for water that entered the sewers, not water that stayed on the lawn or in the swimming pool. Still, there were complaints.

The full council still must approve Black & Veatch and its proposal to compare the city’s waste water system with those of two dozen other privately and publicly run treatment systems throughout the country. If the Sanitation Bureau continues to operate the system, it can benefit from learning what other agencies do better. If it also can reduce its costs, so much the better.