THE INDUSTRIAL WASTE SURCHARGE PROGRAM OF THE
SANITATION DISTRICTS OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
Jay G. Kremer, Head
Industrial Wastes Section
Franklin D. Dryden, Head
Technical Services Department
Dan Glasgow, Project Engineer
John D. Parkhurst, Chief Engineer and General Manager
Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County
Whittier, California 90607
INTRODUCTION
The Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County, comprised of 27 individual sanitation districts, provide a regional sewerage system serving approximately 50% of the industrial companies in the State of California and about 3.8 million people in Los Angeles County. The
Districts' Joint Outfall System (JOS) provides a common sewerage system for 15 of the
sanitation districts encompassing approximately 620 square miles of metropolitan area,
3.65 million people, and 8,000 industrial companies. The 74 cities within the Sanitation
Districts provide the small diameter collection sewers, while the Districts operate the wastewater treatment facilities and trunk sewers. The majority of the Sanitation Districts' JOS
treatment plants provide secondary or tertiary treatment (see Figure 1). The largest treatment facility, the Joint Water Pollution Control Plant (JWPCP), provides advanced primary
treatment and deep ocean disposal for about 340 mgd of wastewater. Conversion to partial
secondary treatment is currently underway.
Ad valorem (property) taxes on land, improvements and certain personal property within
the Sanitation Districts' boundaries have been the main source of local revenue. The Sanitation Districts' tax rate presently averages about 25 £ per hundred dollars of assessed valuation,
which is typically somewhat less than 25% of market value. The owner of a $50,000 market
value home currently pays about $30 per year to the Districts for sewerage service. Industrial
and commercial property owners pay taxes to the Districts based on secured (land and buildings) and unsecured (business fixtures, etc.) property. The majority of Districts' capital
expansion projects, as well as operation and maintenance expenses, have been successfully
financed through ad valorem taxes.
Examination of the Districts' revenue programs for fiscal year 1971-72 indicated that
payments from industrial wastewater dischargers were not equal to the cost of providing
sewerage services. The total contribution of wastewater flow, chemical oxygen demand and
suspended solids to the Districts' sewerage system in 1971 was determined. After subtraction
of the residential contribution, the residual quantities of wastewater, primarily industrial in
origin, were about 35% of the total. For the same time period, industrial ad valorem (property) taxes amounted to about 11% of the Districts' local tax revenue, leaving an imbalance
between treatment capacity usage and reimbursement of costs of approximately 25%.
A Districts' Industrial Waste Ordinance was adopted on April 1, 1972, establishing an industrial user charge (surcharge) program effective on July 1, 1972, with the first payments
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