RESIDENTS SEEK FEE REFUNDS.Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer LANCASTER - One side effect of the proposal by Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County sanitation sanitation: see plumbing; sanitary science. officials to raise Antelope Valley This article is about the Los Angeles County region. For the census-designated place in Wyoming, see Antelope Valley-Crestview, Wyoming. The Antelope Valley sewer fees is the discovery by dozens of homeowners that they've been paying the fees unnecessarily, sometimes for years. Alerted by notices about the proposed fee increases, more than 60 homeowners in the Lancaster and Palmdale area have told sanitation officials that their homes are on septic tanks septic tank, underground sedimentation tank in which sewage is retained for a short period while it is decomposed and purified by bacterial action. The organic matter in the sewage settles to the bottom of the tank, a film forms excluding atmospheric oxygen, and so they should not be charged sewer fees - which for some properties amounted to more than $1,000. County officials said they do not know how many homes in total were incorrectly charged for use of the sewer system Noun 1. sewer system - facility consisting of a system of sewers for carrying off liquid and solid sewage sewage system, sewage works facility, installation - a building or place that provides a particular service or is used for a particular industry; "the . ``I hope not many more than (those who complained),'' said Don Bruns, head of financial planning Financial planning Evaluating the investing and financing options available to a firm. Planning includes attempting to make optimal decisions, projecting the consequences of these decisions for the firm in the form of a financial plan, and then comparing future performance against and property management for the Los Angeles County sanitation districts. Property owners who file for a refund will be repaid for all the fees they were charged, plus interest, Bruns said. The interest payments are different for each year and based on the interest paid on county investments for the time. Sanitation officials will also have the charges removed from future tax bills, Bruns said. County officials said they tried to identify all properties that were on septic tanks - and therefore not connected to the county sewer system - when the sewer-service charge was imposed after the passage in 1978 of Proposition 13, which drastically limited property taxes in California. When the fees were extended to the Antelope Valley in the mid-1980s, county officials sent property owners postcards for them to send back if their homes had septic tanks rather than sewer connections, Bruns said. Officials decided to include the same advisory this year when they mailed to thousands of property owners the notices about the proposed sewer-fee increases, which are to pay for expansions and improvements at the Lancaster and Palmdale sewage treatment Sewage treatment Unit processes used to separate, modify, remove, and destroy objectionable, hazardous, and pathogenic substances carried by wastewater in solution or suspension in order to render the water fit and safe for intended uses. plants. Since the notices went out, more than 60 property owners in sanitation districts 14 and 20 have contacted sanitation officials about the charges and so far refund-claim forms have been received from 27, Bruns said. Forms for claiming a sewer-service-charge refund are on the sanitation district's Web site at www.lacsd.org. Homeowners can also call sanitation officials at (800) 388-4602 to have a service-charge-refund form mailed to them. |
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