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Town:
Students Honored for Perfect Attendance
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Athletic Facilities at Compton Center in Serious Need of Repair
Pay-by-phone Water Services On The Way
Pastor of First A.M.E. Zion Church, L.A. Becomes Denomination’s First Female Bishop
Local Woman Spreads the ‘Love’ on Birthday
Burke Tapped For New Office Of Congressional Ethics
Jospeh
Phillips:
The Cost of Living Green
Trash
Rates to Jump 15 Percent
Rate hike set
to take effect Sept. 1
By
Allison Jean Eaton
Bulletin Staff Writer
COMPTON – In
order to catch up with the cost of living increase over the past four
years as well as compensate for inflation and myriad increased costs,
residents will soon be paying more for trash pickup.
The City Council last Tuesday approved on first reading a 15-percent
increase in rubbish rates. It was expected to be approved on second
reading last night, meaning the new rates should take effect Sept.
1, said Michael Harvey of the city’s water and trash services
department.
The new price, which applies to all commercial, industrial, multi-family
and residential customers, will position Compton just beneath the 50th
percentile relative to cost among South Bay cities, Harvey said.
The last time Compton increased its rates was Jan. 1, 2004. Since then,
the cost of living in the Long Beach/Los Angeles area has gone up considerably.
In 2005, it went up by 2.8 percent. The following year it jumped 4.1
percent. Last year it increased 3 percent, and this year it’s
gone up 3.7 percent, or a total of 13.6 percent since 2004.
The city’s cost of disposing solid waste has also increased.
Compton does not have a solid waste processing center. Collected garbage
and recyclables are transferred to a materials recovery facility in
Puente Hills by way of local transfer center Allied/BFI because the
city cannot afford to transfer the waste itself.
In 2004, the city paid BFI $28.34 per ton, while today it’s paying
$43.50 per ton, or an increase of $15.15 that the city has thus far
had to shoulder in addition to jumps in vehicle maintenance and employee
costs.
Soaring gas prices are playing a big role, too.
In 2004, the cost of diesel fuel was around $1.50 a gallon. The recent
going price has more than tripled, hovering around $5.00 a gallon,
according to Harvey.
At a monthly rate of $13.68, residential users in Compton currently
pay the lowest solid waste hauling fees around compared to five other
area cities. Torrance residents pay $20.79, Long Beach residents $20.25,
Lynwood residents $15.79, Gardena residents $14.83 and Carson residents
$14.70, according to information provided by Harvey.
He added that Carson on July 15 approved raising its residential rate
to $16.46, its second increase since 2004.
Compton’s rates come in as the second lowest relative to multi-family
and commercial rates. Gardena is currently the lowest at $102.44 per
3-cubic-yard bin each pickup. Compton’s rate is $111.82, Lynwood’s
is $117.05, Carson’s is $124.46 and Long Beach’s is $142.02.
“We may not be the lowest, but we’re considerably one of
the lowest in the South Bay area,” Harvey said.
Industrial users will see the biggest change. The city uses an older,
flat-fee method of charging these customers. The current cost is $305.24
per 40-cubic-yard bin each pickup with a mandated four pickups per
month. But other cities charge a flat fee just to pull the bin and,
on top of that, charge another fee per ton of waste collected.
In Carson, the pull fee is $263.59 and $62.31 per ton. Harvey said
each 40-cubic-yard bin holds roughly 7 tons of trash. Assuming that
the bins are full each time trash is collected, industrial users in
Carson on average pay about $699.76 per week – more than double
what industrial users in Compton now pay.
“We’re not even charging enough to pay the transfer fee” when
it comes to industrial users, Harvey said.
By switching to this more modern method of billing, the city will be
able to cover associated transfer costs. “More cities are going
to this model,” he said.
So just how much will your monthly bill increase?
If you’re a single-family homeowner, your new rate will be $15.73.
Those living in multi-family dwellings like an apartment complex and
commercial users like small restaurants can expect to pay $128.60.
And industrial users will now pay a $250 pull fee plus $55 per ton
of trash.
“It’s just time. It’s just reality,” said Mayor
Pro Tem Lillie Dobson. “We’re living in a world now where
everything is higher.”
Resident Lorraine Cervantes said she’s OK with the fee hike.
“Unfortunately, none of us want to see it but we have to be realistic,” she
said. “If we want good service, we have to pay for it.
“Putting us just below the 50th percentile sounds not too drastic.
It doesn’t sound bad.”
Complying With the Law
Harvey said he expects the new rates to allow the city to continue
to comply with ever more stringent solid waste reduction requirements.
In 1989 the state passed the California Integrated Waste Management
Act to address the increase in solid waste and decrease in landfill
space. The bill AB 939 mandates jurisdictions reduce the amount of
waste they send to landfills by diverting recyclables. Specifically,
they were required to divert 25 percent of the waste by 1995 and 50
percent by 2006.
According to Harvey, the Hub City didn’t reach that goal until
recently, in 2006. Because it did not meet the diversion rate on time,
the city was under a state-mandated compliance order and schedule from
2000 through 2006. Today, the city currently diverts about 52 percent,
Harvey said.
The problem lies in public education. Residents and business owners
often don’t realize that the city is mandated by state law to
recycle a certain percentage of its sold waste or risk coming under
a compliance order and potential fines.
“For us to maintain our 50 percent, we have got to start more
programs out there for our residents and our commercial businesses
to make sure
we keep our 50 percent,” Harvey said.
The California Integrated Waste Management Board, he added, is also
considering further diversion requirements. Harvey said the next to
come could be a 75-percent reduction from 1990 totals.
“Another 25-percent reduction, at the rate we are going, it’s
not going to be attainable at what we are doing (charging),” Harvey
said. The new fee hike will position the city in a place where it is
more attainable.
Specifically, it will allow the city to send the trash from commercial
and industrial users to a facility where it can be sorted through for
recyclables and re-usables.
Part of the fee increase, according to the city’s current solid
waste hauler, Pacific Coast Waste and Recycling, will be used to launch
educational campaigns stressing the need to recycle.
“It will allow us to put together a comprehensive recycling education
program,” President and CEO Mel Howard told The Bulletin.
Already, the waste hauler has met with businesses in the new shopping
center asking them to put more effort into recycling. Additionally,
Howard and his colleagues have recently appeared on City Atty. Legrand
Clegg’s local cable television show.
Residents can also expect to see a water rate hike in the coming months.
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