The City of Santa Barbara is trying to ease the financial pain and confusion for property owners who need to replace their sewer laterals.
Santa Barbara requires property owners to replace their sewer laterals, which connect to the city’s water main line. Sewer laterals must be replaced about every 50 years, and there are more than 300 miles of privately owned sewer laterals in the city.
The city has committed to the goal of inspecting all sewer laterals for commercial properties, which includes condos and apartments, by 2023.
The high number of laterals that need to be replaced has jarred city residents. In 2018, more than 850 property owners were required to have their laterals inspected, and of those 850, more than 500 were required to repair or replace their sewer lateral.
The surge of activity has resulted in the city looking for ways to improve communication and education, provide cost controls and financial assistance, and investigate how other municipalities are working with property owners to improve their private infrastructure.
There are currently 1,046 sewer lateral projects in the pipeline, either needing work, an inspection has been requested, an administrative fine or a warning has been issued, or it’s under review.
Sewer lateral replacement costs vary from $5,000 to $20,000, depending on the type of repair needed. In 2018, there were 26 private sewer lateral spills, some of which reached city creeks.
The city began an incentive program in 2007 in which homeowners could receive a $2,000 rebate if they voluntarily inspected their sewer laterals and subsequently needed to replace them. But the incentive program actually increased the cost of the replacement, said Gaylen Fair, laboratory supervisor.
“Plumbers would perhaps charge a little more knowing that the homeowner was getting a reimbursement from the city,” Fair said.
If an inspection is required, the property owner has 60 days to respond by hiring a plumber and sending the video to the city. If a replacement is required, property owners will have 120 days — up from 90 — to repair, rehab or replace the sewer lateral.
To help keep costs down, the city is looking at a bid process for replacing the sewer laterals, where the property owner would use a competitively selected city plumbing contractor to weed out inflated plumber quotes on the private market.
“We know this is very expensive and creates a hardship,” Councilman Randy Rowse said. “There are a lot of people who can’t just write the $10 or $15,000 check when the city comes knocking.”
The city’s Water Commission and City Council are expected to make decisions later this year about the future of the program.
— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at jmolina@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.