Sewer maintenance fees may be passed on to residents

Tariq Malik

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- Residents may bear some of the cost of repairing

and maintaining the city’s sewer lines.

The City Council agreed Tuesday to study a possible maintenance fee

for residents to pay for the operation, rehabilitation, replacement and

maintenance of city sewer lines.

“There are certain basic sorts of things that we have to deal with and

the sewers are one of them,” said Councilman Ralph Bauer, who brought up

the issue. “The sewer system is a service just like water, and while we

charge for what goes in the front door to their homes, we don’t for what

goes out the back door.”

In 1996, the City Council voted down efforts for a similar fee that

would have cost residents and extra $1 per month and raise $1 million for

sewer upkeep.

If council members ultimately approve the sewer fee, city officials

said the cost could be up to four or five times that for residents.

A fee proposal, they added, should be ready by the Feb. 20 City

Council meeting, where various methods of assessing the charge will be

discussed. That includes an add-on to residential and commercial water

bills, and whether the cost will be based on flat rate or the percentage

of water usage.

According to an infrastructure improvement management plan prepared in

September, the city’s sewer system is facing $120.5 million in total

maintenance, operations, rehabilitation and replacement needs over the

next 20 years. About $39 million is required for immediate needs.

State water officials said the city generates 32 million gallons of

sewage per day, which runs through about 600 miles of pipeline.

“We have 28 sewage pump stations throughout the city, all of which

need to be reconstructed, and we need to slip-line sewer lines as we find

it’s needed,” said Robert Beardsley, the city’s public works director.

“But on the calendar we’re on now, sewer fees won’t probably appear on

residential water bills until November.”

City officials said study of the sewer component in city

infrastructure needs has been going on for a number of years, and the

system is among the most critical systems in Huntington Beach.

When council members first defeated the sewer fee five years ago, they

were concerned that since water rates had just been increased, any

additional charges would be too much.

But Bauer said it may have prevented city officials much angst.

“I like to think that had the fee passed, it could have prevented the

problems the city is now facing with the [Orange County] Grand Jury,” he

said.

The grand jury is investigating allegations that the city failed to

properly report massive sewage leaks in the 1990s. In 1996, city

officials first found sewer breaks in pipes running beneath the Downtown

and Old Town areas, with slip-lining measures to seal the holes just

recently reaching completion.

“City Council members have a responsibility to be sure that the city

can properly fund the projects that are needed most,” Bauer said.