Sewer, water rates going up in Oak Park

Facing higher operating costs and government regulatory costs, the Triunfo Sanitation District will raise sewer and water rates in Oak Park starting next month.

The average household sewer bill will increase $5 from $24 to $29 a month, according to Bill Smith, interim general manager of the Triunfo district.

Potable water rates also will go up.

"It’s something we didn’t want to do, but we had to," Smith said.

The sewer hike will generate $739,000 a year in additional revenue that will help Triunfo pay for improvements to the Tapia Water Reclamation Facility south

of Calabasas.

Triunfo uses the plant in a joint venture with Las Virgenes Municipal Water District.

The two agencies currently are locked in a legal dispute that may dissolve their 35-year-old partnership, but Triunfo officials said the rate increase would still remain in effect.

Much of Tapia’s sewer effluent is sold for irrigation purposes, but the water often enters Malibu Creek with harmful effects. Discharge into the creek is prohibited by the state from May through October each year.

New regulations call for a reduction in the nitrate level for the Tapia effluent, a costly process that will fall on customers’ shoulders.

Ron Stark, a Triunfo board member, said the amount Triunfo pays in labor and electrical costs also has increased.

Las Virgenes budgeted $2 million this year toward replacing corroded equipment and meeting the water quality requirements at Tapia. Triunfo is disputing the amount it owes Las Virgenes.

"There are certain things we have to pay for and we’re not contesting those. What we’re saying is we have paid more than our share and we would just hope Las Virgenes would catch up," Stark said.

Oak Park’s 4,500 customers will pay $4.25 more for drinking water each month, raising their average bill from $39.75 to $44.

Oak Park sewer rates haven’t been hiked in three years. Water rates have been the same for four years. Sewer fees, which are separate from water, appear on the customer’s property tax bill.

Customers of Las Virgenes district won’t face a rate hike this year. In fact, a proposal to reduce customer water rates was brought to a vote by the district’s board of directors, but it failed.

Oak Park residents may face additional rate hikes if a proposal to build a new water tank in the community is approved.

The 30-year-old water storage tank at Conifer Street needs to be replaced, officials said. They plan to meet the cost by charging customers an additional 4 to 5 percent on their water bills.

For the average $40 homeowner bill, the increase represents about $2 a month over the next 20 years.

"If we can get a nice [government] grant, obviously it will be a lot less," Stark said.

A report on the new tank will be given to the Oak Park Municipal Advisory Council in December.