Just got off the phone with El Monte City Manager Jim Mussenden, who said that at last night’s meeting the City Council approved a sewer fund that will bring in about $3.5 million to the city. The money will be used to improve the city’s aging 136 miles of sewer lines.

This will cost a single family home about $8.50 a month.

Before the approval by the City Council on Tuesday, El Monte did not have such a fee.

Among the improvements will be replacement of 117,012 lineal feet of pipe, which will cost $35 million over 20 years; replacement of 508 manholes, which will cost $2.8 million over 20 years; and the rehabilitation of four sewer pump stations, which will cost nearly $550,000 over 20 years.

The council would not have approved the fund if it received letters from a majority of the residents opposing it. Mussenden said that the city received only 126 letters out of the nearly 118,000 parcels that are impacted.