Sanitary district raises fees by 5%

Paul Clinton

Sanitary district members approved rate increases for residents in

both trash and sewage rates at a Thursday evening meeting.

The Costa Mesa Sanitary District board unanimously approved a

4.88% rise in the trash collection fee and a 5% increase for

collecting “liquid waste,” or sewage flowing into the agency’s

network of pipes or into city street gutters.

Sewer rates bumped up from $24.17 to $25.38; the increase was the

third in the last eight years. Trash rates jumped from $184.62 to

$193.64 per year.

The agency raises trash rates each year to account for increases

in the cost of handling and disposing of the city’s waste, manager

Rob Hamers said.

Trash rates are increased each year because of the rising cost of

doing business and rising inflation, Hamers said.

“Just to keep us in line with our budgetary needs,” board member

Art Perry said about the reason for the move. “We had to raise the

rates to keep out of the red.”

The rates were also needed to cover the increasing cost of

managing the city’s trash, board members said.

The sanitary district holds two contracts with companies that

handle that task. Costa Mesa Disposal picks up the garbage and

delivers it to C.R. Transfer, which separates it into recyclable

materials and non-recyclable materials.

C.R. Transfer recycles at least 50% of the trash, in accordance

with state law, and sends the rest to a landfill in the foothills of

Orange County.

Assembly Bill 949, passed in 1989, required cities to comply with

the at-least-50%-recycled-trash standard. However, only about a third

of the cities in the state do so, said Dan Worthington, a member of

the board of directors.

“The cost of doing that is not getting less each year,”

Worthington said. “It’s getting more.”

Part of the contract Hamers negotiates with the two trash haulers

is a clause that allows the haulers to demand an annual 3%

cost-of-living increase and also pass along additional costs for

separating the trash, Worthington said.

C.R. Transfer charges the district $22 per ton of trash delivered

to the landfill. They charge $48 per ton of separated trash,

Worthington said.

Hamers and Perry also said the sanitary district needed to raise

rates to pay for the nearly dozen programs they offer. Those include

hazardous waste pickups, a once-a-year large-item pickup and a

program in which used syringes and needles are collected from

pharmacies.

* PAUL CLINTON covers the environment and politics. He may be

reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail at paul.clinton@- latimes.com.