City Council Approves Increase in Sewer Fees

The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday narrowly approved raising sewer rates by an average of $1.40 a month to offset a $54-million deficit and prevent the city from defaulting on millions of dollars in bond payments.

The council’s action will raise residential sewer rates about 9%, or $1.13 per month, and hike commercial rates by 5.9%, about $1.70 per month. The rate increase was approved on an 8-5 vote. The dissenters--Richard Alatorre, Ernani Bernardi, Mike Hernandez, Nate Holden and Mark Ridley-Thomas--said the hike was unfair to city residents who have dutifully conserved water by more than 30% this year, and that it would hit the city’s poorest residents hardest.

Sewer charges are based on water consumption. City residents were required to cut back water usage by at least 15%, but doing so at twice that amount caused sewer system revenues to drop.