EDITORIAL

The trouble often may be hard to see, but there’s no denying that Surf

City has an underlying problem at its core: Its sewer system is falling

apart.

This month, city leaders took a bold -- because it’s sure to be and

already is unpopular -- step to tackle that problem by raising water and

sewer bills to pay for much-needed underground fixes. The monthly fees --

ranging from $4.40 for apartments, to $5.30 for single-fmaily homes to

$6.15 for businesses -- will raise about $5.6 million a year, with $1.1

million going directly to sewer maintenance. And it does so at a

relatively inexpensive price -- call it the cost of living in a

community, not unlike the cost of doing business.

Some residents have complained about the fee’s “flat� rate. But while

water usage is easily calculated, it is far more difficult to determine a

rate for sewage produced. Is it simply volume or is it judged by the

sewage’s bacteria levels?

The fact is that the city’s sewer lines are old and corroded from

nearby ocean water. Those decaying lines resulted in the leaks that led

the Orange County Supreme Court to fine the city $75,000 earlier this

year after the city had to plead guilty to failing to report the leaks.

The city was right to wait no longer in taking a step toward fixing

this serious problem. It is, of course, now up to the city to make sure

that the problem does get handled.