By Mary O’KEEFE

Several residents in the unincorporated area of Los Angeles County, including La Crescenta/Montrose, have received a letter from the County Dept. of Public Health/Environmental Health Division dated June 20 informing them of a $5 to $43 annual fee that would be charged to them for their septic tank via their property tax assessments.

The problem is most residents do not have septic tanks and pay for their sewer treatment via Crescenta Valley Water District.

Residents began calling Crescenta Valley Town Council President Harry Leon as soon as the letters began hitting mailboxes.

“I contacted Supervisor [Kathryn] Barger’s office,” Leon said.

What he learned was these letters had been sent out to about 49,000 addresses.

“The County didn’t have the data of who had septic [tanks] and who didn’t,” he said.

CV Water District also began getting calls from residents concerned about the letter.

“We sent the Public Health Dept. a list of all our customers,” said CVWD spokeswoman Christy Scott. “Residents don’t have to do anything else.”

Scott added if residents wanted to they could mail a copy of their CVWD bill to the Public Health Dept. showing that payment for sewer service is through CVWD, as the letter states.

The Dept. of Public Health Environmental Health website states, “It has been brought to our attention that communication from the Department of Public Health Environmental Health (DPH-EH) Division regarding septic systems has resulted in numerous calls to both the Board office and through Environmental Health. The intent of the letter was to prevent erroneous errors in future billing and unfortunately has created confusion and frustrations for property owners. Please accept our apologies for the discrepancies in our records. Our department is taking action to rectify this situation.

“At this time property owners are not being required to take any action to demonstrate that they are connected to the municipal sewer system. After our records have been compared to other County agency’s records and municipal water and sewer district records, we will work with Board offices to notify impacted constituents.”

Supervisor Barger received a “ton” of calls, according to Sussy Nemer, the supervisor’s representative. The letters were sent throughout the unincorporated areas of LA County.

Barger will be introducing a motion at the July 23 meeting of LA County Board of Supervisors regarding the letters. According to the motion, there are currently 47,000 septic systems, plus an additional 900 non-conventional onsite wastewater treatment systems, with the majority in the County’s Fifth District – Barger’s district.

The letters were sent to residents in compliance with recently adopted changes to State Onsite Wastewater Treatment Systems Policy and, in October 2018, the County opted to adopt a Local Agency Management Plan ordinance.

If the County had not adopted the policy the State of California would have assumed oversight and charged a fee of $1,044 per year for residential systems and $2,088 annually for commercial systems. By adopting the policy it did, county fees are assessed at a lower rate increase of $43 per year for non-conventional systems and $5 annually for conventional systems.

In the motion, Barger has asked for a letter of explanation sent to residents within 30 days as well as having the Dept. of Public Works and other stakeholders update their records.

Although CVWD has sent a list of its customers to the County, residents who want to can still send the DPH proof of a sewer connection via a sewer bill or an “approved building permit to have your property removed from our database,” according to the County letter.

For more information, contact (626) 430-5380 or email dlanduse@phlacounty.gov. Residents can also call CVWD at (818) 248-3925.

  Mary Okeefe