Los Angeles residents could see sewer bills double in next four years

Customers could be paying more than double their current rates by 2028 due to a series of fee increases.

Los Angeles residents and business owners could see their sewer bills more than double over four years if the L.A. City Council adopts a series of proposed rate increases to pay for infrastructure maintenance and upgrades.

The city’s sanitation bureau has proposed increasing sewer rates seven times between October 2024 and July 2028, with the first increase amounting to a 22% fee hike. This would be followed by a series of smaller increases over the next few years, until customers are paying slightly more than double what they’re paying today.

That would mean that a typical single-family household – which currently pays $75.40 every two months on average – can expect a charge of roughly $92.08 starting this October. By July 2028, that same household would pay $155.48 bi-monthly on average. Eligible low-income households would continue to get a discount on the rates.

City Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, who chairs the council’s Energy and Environment Committee, said during the Tuesday, May 14, council meeting that the city used to raise sewer rates annually but when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, officials put the brakes on rate hikes.

Yaroslavsky called that “the right decision at the time.” However, she added, “because we haven’t increased these rates for five years, what’s being proposed is a not insignificant bump.”

And given the city’s need to upgrade its aging infrastructure and to repay bond obligations, Yaroslavsky said the city doesn’t have a lot of flexibility when it comes to raising rates now.

Following a lengthy debate, the City Council voted 11-4 on Tuesday to start the process for adopting the proposed fee hikes – though any changes in rates won’t be official until the issue returns to the council for a final vote. Councilmembers Monica Rodriguez, Kevin de León, Heather Hutt and Imelda Padilla voted no to move forward with the process.

Before the council can finalize the rate increases, the sanitation bureau intends to notify all property owners and customers in the city about the proposed hikes and hold a public hearing, which most likely will occur in late summer.

Those who object to the proposed fee schedule can submit a written “protest,” Barbara Romero, general manager of L.A. Sanitation & Environment, wrote in a report to city councilmembers.

If over 50% of property owners submit valid protests, the proposed rate hikes can’t be enacted, according to a spokesperson for the sanitation bureau. During Tuesday’s council meeting, Romero said that there are about 850,000 parcel owners to whom her bureau will have to send notices.

Romero said staff at the sanitation bureau plan to host open houses, speak at Los Angeles Neighborhood Council meetings and launch a calculator on their website where customers can plug in their information and find out how much to expect to pay.

The city last increased sewer rates in 2012, with the final increase taking effect in 2020, according to Romero. In her report to councilmembers, Romero spoke of aging infrastructure, noting that nearly a third of the city’s pipes are more than 90 years old, treatment plants have an expected life cycle of 30 to 50 years and the Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant’s last major overhaul was almost four decades ago. Over the next five years, the city is anticipating spending more than $3 billion on capital projects.

In addition, Romero told the City Council on Tuesday that the city’s sanitation bureau has been using reserve funds the last four years.

“We need to ensure that we protect the health and the environment of our sewer system in our neighborhoods. As you all know, we have an aging infrastructure,” Romero said.

“It is our legal and our regulatory obligation to ensure that the city’s wastewater system is maintaining good working condition,” she later added, noting that L.A.’s sewer system spans 67 miles.

But some question whether the rate hikes – or at least the size of the raises – are justified.

Jack Humphreville, a Neighborhood Council Budget Advocate who watches the city’s financial situation closely, submitted to the City Council a recent piece he wrote for CityWatch in which he suggested that the city only approve a one-time 18% rate increase, equal to a four-year rate of inflation. Then the council and ratepayers could have more time to conduct a longer review of the sanitation bureau before additional increases are approved.

In his write-up, Humphreville also called for an independent opinion on whether the proposed rates are merited.

“We need time. We are talking about a four-year, $700 million rate increase (20% a year) by an opaque and unresponsive enterprise that must be thoroughly vetted without undue time pressures,” he wrote.

During Tuesday’s council meeting, Councilmember Monica Rodriguez proposed that the city’s Office of Public Accountability conduct an independent evaluation – separate from studies conducted by two consulting firms hired by the sanitation bureau that helped formulate the proposed fee increases.

“We have an obligation to make sure that there is absolute accountability and transparency with the rates as they’re being proposed,” Rodriguez said, and “that we can go forward with confidence knowing that these rates as proposed are actually reasonable and that the ratepayers are actually going to get the services that they are being promised as a result of these rate increases.”

But other councilmembers questioned whether the Office of Public Accountability could legally take on that role, and some raised concerns that another study would delay the implementation of any potential rate increases.

In the end, a majority on the council voted to request the city attorney to prepare an ordinance about the proposed rate adjustments and authorized the sanitation bureau to start informing ratepayers about the proposed rate changes and about a future public hearing.