EDITORIAL : FAIRNESS DOWN THE DRAIN CITY SHOULD REVISE ITS INEQUITABLE SEWER BILLING POLICY.

TODAY, the City Council is scheduled to consider changing the way Los Angeles calculates residents' monthly sewer service charges.

We urge the council to give serious consideration to approving a new policy that would be fairer to hundreds of thousands of customers, including many in the San Fernando Valley.

Although some council members feel political pressure to ignore facts in order to mollify their constituents, there are many valid reasons for dumping the current system.

Under the existing policy, the city assumes that 60 percent of water entering every residence goes out through the sewer, and it bills customers for that much. But that's unfair to those who use a lot of water to irrigate lawns, trees or shrubs - water that goes in the ground, not down the sewer.

The proposal before the council would base sewer charges on water use during cool winter months when the rainy season makes irrigation largely unnecessary.

This summer, two San Fernando Valley residents filed a class-action lawsuit against the city, alleging that the existing billing policy is unfair. They are not alone in feeling that way; each year, more than 15,000 residential customers apply for adjustments, claiming they are being overcharged. The city spends more than $1 million annually to process those appeals, which show that something's amiss.

Sound public policy dictates that costs should correspond to actual use whenever feasible. The city recently authorized residents to install private water meters to accurately measure their outdoor water use, but the equipment costs hundreds of dollars. Even the city itself acknowledges that it cannot afford an extensive residential metering study.

Given all those facts, why is there any doubt about whether the council will scrap the existing policy? Council members fear that their constituents will have higher sewer bills as a result.

However, the city's own figures show that the increase for those customers - the ones who have been subsidized until now - will be less than $1 a month. That seems like a small adjustment considering how many other homeowners are overcharged by more than $2 a month, and have been for many years.

When this issue came to the council in the past, some council members seemed to believe (very incorrectly) that Valley residents are rich and should continue to subsidize other L.A. residents.

We urge the council to reject such bigotry, and adopt the policy of winter water use for a sewer base-line level.

The council already has harmed the Valley by opposing Assemblywoman Paula Boland's legislation to restore the Valley's right of political self-determination. After robbing the Valley of its democratic rights, the council will only make things worse if it votes today to rob the Valley's wallet, too.