Sometimes it’s harder than other times to suck down my anger over how our city officials carry out their pogrom against the middle class year after year, seemingly oblivious to how their actions subject the poor to generations of poverty, enrich the rich and drive away those who are neither rich nor poor.
Water rate hikes that the City Council rejected unanimously barely a week ago were enacted into the law on Friday with only Janice Hahn and Dennis Zine honest enough to speak the truth or vote with honor against the DWP’s latest effort to turn the public’s desire for environmental sensitivity into revenue to sustain its bloated payroll.
Starting June 1, residents of single-family homes get a 15 percent cut in their base water allocation and face a 44 percent increase on every drop of water they use above that — a rate that is 75 percent higher than the base.
Yet, as far as I can tell, apartment owners and businesses and everyone else in LA only need to cut their base rate consumption by just 2.5 percent
The allocation takes into account lot size and other factors so that houses on small lots face the same 15 percent cut as those on giant lots which get roughly twice as much water on their base rate allocation.
At the same time, the DWP is in the process of more or less doubling those on reduced rates to about one-sixth of the total number of households. This is being done without regard to means testing so, for example, people who live in an area where most people are poor all get the reduced rates regardless of income.
Is any of this fair or rational or likely to achieve conservation goals? Does any of it achieve the mayor’s stated goal of “re-inventing” LA’s middle class (re-inventing because the middle class has been chased away for years) or does it strengthen the message that the real goal of City Hall’s policies is get rid of the middle class homeowners replace them and their houses with high-rise slums surrounding luxury enclaves?
LA does have a water shortage, an electricity shortage, a land shortage, a paved streets and sidewalks shortage, a jobs shortage and a budget shortfall so massive that the mayor on Monday will announce he will start selling off pieces of the city like parking revenue, raising fees on the middle class and cutting services just to get through a few more months before the situation worsens.
This has got to end. In fact, it will end one way or another. Middle class workers are losing their jobs and their ability to pay the escalating costs of city government, let alone their mortgages. Small business people are seeing their revenue tumble so they’re getting rid of workers, paying less in sales and business taxes.
Meanwhile, the revenue from the water rate hikes will keep DWP workers in their jobs at bloated salaries without any effort at making the utility more cost efficient.
The Daily News today has a long list of things that actually could be done to conserve water use if that were the DWP’s goal, which it isn’t.
David Coffin at Westchester Parents offers a good explanation of much of what’s wrong with the water rate hikes and suggests a graduated system of as many as five tiers with rates rising at each level. Environmentalists who have studied our failed electricity rates system have suggested similar ideas to encourage reduced use of increasingly precious resources.
The rich and flagrant wasters would be soaked for their excesses; those at the lowest end of the middle class, like the poor, would not suffer. It’s sort of like the graduated income tax and if combined with streamlining of the DWP and reductions in payroll costs would keep the utility solvent, provide a degree of fairness and achieve meaningful conservation.
But that would require leadership at City Hall, a degree of honesty and integrity and respect for all segments of the community.
That isn’t going to happen without an uprising of the people. City Hall is at war with the middle class and the only sane response is to fight back with renewed energy as we did to stop Measure B.
Maybe we should all start by appealing the rate hike. Don’t many of us face economic hardships these days? Won’t the massive sales tax increases and proposed state income tax increase and city fee hikes add to our economic burdens?
If you’ve lost your job, seen your income fall sharply, already conserved as much water as you can, aren’t you entitled to a break like the rich and the poor?
Thank you for providing this info about the goings on at City Hall. As bad as things are, the mayor and the council still don’t get it. Everyone has had to take a cut because of the recessiuon, why should city government be any different? There ought to be layoffs and paycuts, no fee increases or taxes.
Mark Haefele, who’s widely respected on this issue as a bipartisan voice, has an interesting Op Ed in today’s Times, Down the Drain, lamenting that Gray Water — from domestic sinks, washers, tubs and sinks (not toilets!) could offer huge reductions in water usage but that although trial projects have shown no significant measurable increase in toxic contaminents the red tape at the State level is so thick that only 200 such homes have been retrofitted since the original trial in 92. (One example he gives is that outdoor pipes must be 9″ underground, too deep to be any use for watering — who thought up that one?) That’s so pathetic.
He makes the especially valid point that this would be of most benefit for apartment buildings and businesses, the huge water users/ wasters who are being exempted from this rate increase. An apt. building could run piping to the exterior taking care of the whole building, and would be less bothersome in the long run than the DWP somehow “working with apt. owners” as Nahai said, to figure out how to deal with their multiple tenants, some of whom use much more or less water than others but may have water included in their rents, or where they don’t have separate meters for each apt.
To be fair the blame for this mess is laid at the feet of over-cautious state assemblymembers, while Ruth Galanter was one of the beta testers and chief advocates for the program back in 92.
Sen. Alanthal (D- Long Beach) has a “Shower to Flower” bill in the works to revive and revamp the idea. Why don’t you research this and see if it’s something constructive you can put your forces behind.
Oops, end 1:27 that’s Sen. Alan Lowenthal, who’s the man with the plan.
It is interesting that we all do really care about wasting water – I can read it in the messages including Ron’s.
It is also interesting that the pols are not because they know that we can never use up the water on the planet – it is recycled.
They just have an overwhelming need for excuses to tax us until we are broke. I guess they and their cohorts do not realize that they could die tomorrow and be very, very broke. Brinks will not be found in graves.
Out of curiosity, how does this compare with other cities in
the county? I see that the County of LA also differiates between single family and “other”?
In other words, how does the city of LA stack up against others?
The LADWP is already involved in the “Showers to Flowers” program – I attended the “LADWP Sustainable Water” event last September that is discussed below.
Since as the blog below states, we have known about the need to conserve for a long time, why all of a sudden does the City Council want to implement such rate hikes at the LADWP? Could this be how they will balance their City budget – with increased City taxes? I think that those City taxes should not go to the general fund since we are already going to pay the increased costs that the MWD charges. I think that the taxes should be used to reduce the costs of water to the First Tier users and lower energy users as an incentive to conserve rather than punish us by lowering our water allotment.
And Long Beach, Irvine, and Orange County all have their own conservation plans and “purple pipe” systems in place.
I believe that the LADWP “Showers to Flowers” system was described as a 5 stage process rather than the three stages of the Orange County plan.
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“L.A. Creek Freak
towards healthy Southern California streams, creeks, rivers and neighborhoods
Recent News, Upcoming Events 2008 September 18 -Building a Healthier San Gabriel River Watershed Day 2 »
LADWP’s Sustainable Water Forum
By Joe Linton
California is in Drought
Three years of drought has reduced our water supply. Be water wise !
http://www.BeWaterWise.com
Officials Drinking Recycled Water (Left to Right: Zaldivar, Alpert, Nahai, Ruiz and Villaraigosa)
I was invited to attend the city of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s (DWP) “Forum on Sustainable Water Supplies for Los Angeles” which took place today at the Tillman Water Reclamation Plant. I was very encouraged by the event, especially by the articulate and principled leadership of DWP General Manager David Nahai.
The forum was presented by DWP in collaboration with LA City Bureau of Sanitation, the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, Heal the Bay, TreePeople, and the Valley Alliance of Neighborhood Councils. Presenters included Mayor Villaraigosa, Board of Public Works president Cynthia Ruiz, DWP commissioner Lee Alpert, State Water Board member Frances Spivy-Weber, DWP assistant GM for water Jim McDaniel, Heal the Bay president (and valuable water blogger) Mark Gold, LA Regional Water Board executive office Tracy Egoscue, and others. In the above photo, Mayor Villaraigosa, along with Alpert, Nahai, Ruiz, and Bureau of Sanitation GM Enrique Zaldivar, made a show of drinking water from a carafe of recycled water that was imported from Orange County.
The purpose of the forum was more-or-less to tout critical aspects of the Mayor’s water plan. Released in May 2008, it’s called Securing L.A.’s Water Supply (0.5MB pdf.) I haven’t read all of it, but I’ve read and heard about it, and, from my vantage point, it’s moving us in a good direction. Basically, we’re not getting any more imported water, so we’re going to have to make the water that we already have go further. There are five basic stratgies for this: 1) Conservation, 2) Increased Use of Recycled Water, 3) Increased Capture of Rainwater, 4) Clean Up of Aquifers, and 5) Expansion of Groundwater Storage. In this mix is a slightly controversial project to use recycled water (that is highly treated wastewater) to recharge our groundwater. This is being called GWR for GroundWater Recharge. This was proposed/approved in the past, and but never got off the ground (or, should I say, got into the ground) due to vocal concerns from San Fernando Valley stakeholders calling it “toilet to tap.” The chorus at today’s forum was along the lines of: we’re going to do GWR, and it’s going to be open and transparent, and the technology is so much better now, and, look, Orange County is already doing it safely!
From an environmental perspective, GWR and other expanded uses of recycled water are long overdue. We’re importing water from all over the west, using it once, and dumping it out to the sea. If we’re able to use it over and over, then that’s less imported water needed, less damage to the watersheds we’re importing it from, less energy spent pumping it (hence less greenhouse gases.) Note that there is a valid concern that, if recycled water use really really takes off (many years from now), it could result in a much drier Los Angeles River… but I’ll save that concern for another blog.
Overall the event kept a very positive (nearly salesmanly) tone. GWR is safe, conservation is important, imported water is unreliable (those pesky delta smelt, that uncooperative snowmelt), climate change is scary, desalinization is difficult, and, did we mention, how safe GWR is? I’m not going to try to recap the entire forum, so I’ll just focus on the two speakers who I found most compelling. I am not going to focus on Mayor Villaraigosa, though I have to give him kudos for the direction that his plan is taking us, and for the great appointments he’s made at DWP.
State Assemblymember Mike Duvall is a very folksy avuncular middle-aged Orange County republican. Think Tom LaBonge meets Huell Howser, with a dash of elder statesman. It was great to hear eager enthusiasm (about water, even) in the voice of a politician. As a Yorba Linda city councilmember with a background in drinking water businesses, he described his initial opposition to water recycling there. From his seat on the Orange County Sanitation District, he became more familiar with the technology and the need for recycled water and is now a major proponent. He invited the audience to come on one of the frequent tours he leads of the Orange County plant. He decries lack of state interest in GWR water as stemming from opposition from upstate water suppliers who don’t want competition. He touts the great efficiency of GWR, stating that it’s able to recover 97% percent of the water in the sewage (the GM of the OC Water District later pegged it at more like 85-90% – still very good.) He even has a clever slogan to combat the “toilet to tap” – he calls it “showers to flowers!”
David Nahai, CEO and General Manager of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power
At the moral center of the event was David Nahai who has served as the head of of DWP since late last year. I’ve encountered Nahai before, in his longtime role as a environmental stalwart on the regional water board. He’s great. One of the mayor’s very best environmental moves was to hire him to run the DWP. David Nahai is up-front, clear, principled and generous. He continually emphasized that water solutions would be based in partnership and collaboration – with an array of city departments, other governmental agencies, neighborhood councils, community groups, and an engaged public. He frequently voiced praise of (and deferred credit to) the work being done by his staff. He uttered the most stark (for a public official) assessment of the damage caused by L.A.’s thirst for imported water, saying that, in the Owens Valley “we left in our wake an environmental calamity.” Where most of drinking water establishment disrespects the tiny threatened delta smelt (basically the state can’t pump as much water due to a recent court ruling to protect an endangered fish), Nahai stated that he “welcomed that decision,” though it means less water for Los Angeles, because it means we can “prevent catastrophe” elsewhere. Nahai described the mayor’s action plan as a “declaration of water independence” and stated that the most critical part of implementing the plan will be public confidence in the plan and the agency. He called this “the sacred compact” his department has with the people of Los Angeles.
There’s a lot of work to do ensure L.A.’s water supply, to heal L.A.’s environment, and to authentically green the DWP… but I feel like we’ve got some great momentum with David Nahai at the helm.
5 Responses to “LADWP’s Sustainable Water Forum”
Joe Linton Says:
September 20, 2008 at 10:58 pm
Here’s a good story about recycled water – relating one writer’s Orange County experience:
http://www.alternet.org/water/99552/is_drinking_from_the_toilet_bowl_the_best_way_to_deal_with_water_shortages/
and here’s an OC enviro blogger on the subject:
http://ocvoice.wordpress.com/2008/06/10/no-crap-tap-recycled-sewage-water-helps-solve-water-shortage-and-tastes-good/
Dorothy Le Says:
September 24, 2008 at 5:58 pm
wow very interesting joe! i’ve heard a lot about david nahai.
Rick Grubb Says:
September 26, 2008 at 1:24 am
While we support the use of reclaimed water at appropriate sites, and only after extensive purification, (not the tertiary product Tillman tried to spread in the Tujunga Wash that we defeated with then councilman Antonio’s Villagarrosa’s help many years ago), and without the intrusive tanks and piping associated with it’s storage and delivery, we must not continue degrading the unspoiled and scenic places (like the Upper Big Tujunga Wash), for the sake of watering a golf course that never should have been put here either. We strenuosly oppose the destruction of ever more native wildlands for whatever public or private development happens along. These are not appropriate places for more unchecked urban sprawl which continues unabated and unchanged while residents are told they can just drink out of the toilet and pee in the yard, developers can keep doing the same old digging us into an ever deeper hole, the same exact way we got in over our heads thus far!
Require new construction to include; 1 Grey water systems for irrigation of 2. only native plant landscaping, and 3. onsite storm water capture in building code regulations for any new construction permit.
This should have already have been imposed upon the development community! Where is the political will to make the tough decisions and wholesale changes we must make and soon?
Joe Linton Says:
September 26, 2008 at 11:04 pm
From my friend Serena Lin who gave me permission to post her comments here: “Very good article, creek freak. Although perhaps I am turning into one too. Recharged water is very important and the entire toilet-to-tap thing is an exaggerated concern coming from one of LA’s better-heeled communities –… Read More so it’s unsurprising that they are using the OC as the leader in this regard. I must say, I like Nahai — but that was quite a rave you gave him. I also enjoyed the feel of the piece — very visceral, and I felt like I was present with those guys in their suits drinking their water. Makes me want to do more water work. Thirsting for more! — Review posted by Anonymous, jk”
WestchesterParents » H. David Nahai – The Moral Center? Says:
September 28, 2008 at 10:57 pm
[...] LA Creek Freak writes about the recent so-called Sustainable Water Forum and describes a very different H. David Nahai from the one that I’m familiar with. [...]“
“Water rate hikes that the City Council rejected unanimously barely a week ago were enacted into the law on Friday with only Janice Hahn and Dennis Zine honest enough to speak the truth or vote with honor against the DWP’s latest effort to turn the public’s desire for environmental sensitivity into revenue to sustain its bloated payroll.”
That City Council is the most pitiful excuse for
government I have ever seen in my life. It really is time for CHANGE – this time for the better. We already have the worst.
Who is the paying the bills?
It is anybody who is working for a living.
Workers are considered fair game for City Hall, whether it is through increased DWP rates to pay for huge pay increases for the the IBEW, the mayor’s largest campaign contributor, or higher and higher fees to pay for the city’s inefficient delivery of services.
And now the Mayor is proposing to sell capital assets to pay for operating expenses, some of which have not been properly funded. Think fat city pensions, sidewalks, and roads.
The current financial model of the City is not sustainable. Too much revenue goes to police and firefighter compensation. Nobody, including the police, should be able to retire at age 50 with increasing life expectancies, this kind of thing blows the budget apart.
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power General Manager, H. David Nahai, serves on the California League of Conservation Voters as a board of director. According to the CLCV website, CLCV endorsed Measure B. This appears to be a conflict of interest.
Angelenos have a right to know whether Mr. Nahai recused himself when the CLCV board voted to endorse measure B or did Nahai vote to endorse the measure. Can Mr. Nahai’s spoke person answer this question?