By Megan Ma

The Los Altos Hills town government will manage the majority of the town’s sewer connections, including those servicing residents in the unincorporated areas of town, as outlined in a new sewer agreement between the Los Altos and Los Altos Hills city councils.

“It’s a fairly big accomplishment for both sides,” said Jim Porter, public works director in Los Altos.

Los Altos agreed to sell a portion, approximately 332,400 gallons of its 3.6 million gallon-per-day sewer capacity, to the Hills. Except for a few Los Altos-owned sewer mains along Summerhill Avenue, the town of Los Altos Hills will manage the flow from residential neighborhoods in the Hills.

Los Altos, which will continue to transfer waste from Hills’ residents through its pipelines, has enacted a new, more precise method to measure the daily sewage flow. Sewage from the Hills will continue to flow through Los Altos pipes to the Palo Alto treatment plant.

“We’re changing to a flow-capacity measurement of sewage, so there will be a more accurate reflection of what’s coming out of the Hills and an accurate method for charging them,” Porter said.

The new system can record the exact volume generated by household and the town will be charged accordingly, he said. Los Altos Hills will pay for flow-meter measurement stations, which will be installed throughout the Hills.

The final agreement, scheduled to go into effect Nov. 15, is still pending. Los Altos councilmembers Oct. 25 discussed the amount to charge in penalty fees if Hills residents exceed their maximum flow allotment and inadvertently damage Los Altos-owned pipes.

Los Altos City Councilman David Casas agreed with Los Altos Mayor Ron Packard that penalties

should increase exponentially with the duration of an overflow.

“I favor a financial penalty. Where is the incentive not to exceed the maximum flow?” Casas said. “Our duty is to preserve the assets of this community.”

Los Altos Hills Councilman Mike O’Malley said he was surprised at the Los Altos council’s decision to increase penalty fees.

“We thought we had an agreement. The concern we’ve got is that it seems rather draconian to impose penalties over something we don’t have much control over. You can’t turn off the pipes,”

O’Malley said.

Currently, Los Altos Hills is allotted 330,000 gallons of sewage per day, which flow through Los Altos pipes that connect with the Palo Alto processing plant. Under the new plan, the town could purchase additional capacity.

Since the 1970s, Los Altos has provided sewer connections for the southern section of the Hills because the town lacked the infrastructure to provide them.

In fact, many Hills residents, said O’Malley, still hook up to antiquated septic tank systems. He said he hopes to provide the opportunity for those residents to connect to a more reliable town sewer system in the near future.

“We want to run and manage the whole sewer system and

increase coverage,” O’Malley said.