PORT ANGELES — A group of Carlsborg property owners told Clallam County commissioners Tuesday that a current proposal to build a sewer along Carlsborg Road stinks.
Thanks but no thanks, they said in a public hearing to extend temporary zoning for Carlsborg, because the cost will be too high.
Others said the existing Carlsborg Urban Growth Area, which needs a sewer to be valid and compliant with the 1990 Growth Management Act, will change the rural characteristic of the unincorporated village west of Sequim.
“I reject this sewer proposal,” said Susanne Severeid of Carlsborg.
“I reject the continuation of declaring Carlsborg an urban growth area.
“We don’t need this sewer. We don’t want this sewer. We can’t afford this sewer. And we haven’t asked for this sewer.”
Nearly 20 property owners spoke out against the sewer proposal.
A few business owners, however, spoke in favor of it. Urban growth areas like Carlsborg need sewers for businesses to expand.
“We’re talking about our livelihoods here,” said Cory Startup, who owns businesses in Carlsborg Industrial Park.
The estimated $15 million sewer and wastewater treatment plant is a joint project of Clallam County and the Clallam County Public Utility District. The county has already committed $4 million.
PUD approved a draft facilities plan in August and sent it to the state for review.
PUD would operate the sewer if a local utility district, or LUD, is formed in June and the sewer gets built, likely in 2012.
“The effort to form an LUD is not, I repeat not, a grass-roots movement of the residents of Carlsborg,” Severeid said.
“The only genuine grass-roots movement here is to stop this sewer and the LUD, and to preserve the rural flavor of Carlsborg.”
Scott Frederick submitted a petition on behalf of Citizens for the Preservation of Carlsborg with more than 170 signatures of residents opposed to the project.
“We don’t know the cost; we know that you don’t know the cost,” Frederick told the three county commissioners.
“We have some real concerns about the sewer project as a whole.”
Lively public testimony
After more than 90 minutes of lively public testimony, the commission unanimously extended interim zoning for the county to continue down its Growth Management Act compliance track.
A state hearings board in April 2008 ruled that Carlsborg was noncompliant with the 1990 legislation because it doesn’t have a sewer. The deadline to extend interim zoning was today.
Among those in favor of the project was Art Green, who owns a medical manufacturing company with 23 employees in the industrial park and wants to expand to a neighboring lot.
“I think we should be finding a solution for the UGA, based on implementation in 2000,” Green said.
“Hopefully, we can come up with a solution. I’d like to keep my company there. I’d like to have it continue to grow.”
Startup said there are more than 150 business supporting 1,000 jobs in Carlsborg.
“I don’t even know if I’m for or against the sewer,” he said.
“I just need to preserve what I have.”
Startup said the county should host more community forums to clear up misconceptions about the project.
“I don’t know the cost, just like these people don’t know the cost,” he said.
“If there’s an alternative, I’d sure like to hear it.”
Costs unknown
Commissioner Steve Tharinger said the reason the county hasn’t hosted more forums is because the costs are still unclear.
“Everyone needs to know that cost — we don’t know it yet,” Tharinger said.
“We won’t know if there’s any public grant money or other dollars to lower that price probably until about May or June. That’s part of the moving target here.”
The project was one of a dozen targeted for a $10 million state loan, but whether the state approves the loan is up in the air. Washington faces a $5 billion budget deficit.
Frederick said concerns over nitrates from septic systems polluting the groundwater were not supported in a 2004 study.
He also said PUD has produced several different maps of the proposed local utility district, which, if formed, will determine the boundaries for sewer assessments.
Special benefits study
A special benefits study would come first.
“I’m not sure which map is the correct one for the LUD,” Frederick said.
Frederick also questioned a nonbinding advisory petition that established the required 10 percent support for the local utility district.
“We are seeing multiple names on petitions of the PUD of the same residencies — up to nine for the same residency,” Frederick said.
“We don’t know where they got their 10 percent.”
Bryan Frazier and others said the urban growth area designation should be lifted and that rural zoning should take its place.
Liens, hookup fees
Severeid said she and her neighbors are concerned over “possible multithousand-dollar liens against our property, hookup fees, monthly charges and possible costs to disable existing properly functioning septic systems.”
“Commissioners, you cannot move forward without this community,” she said.
Another sewer opponent, who answered his cell phone while addressing the commissioners, asked the audience members to raise their hand if they “don’t want the damn thing in.”
Nearly everyone in the boardroom raised their hand.
One of the few who didn’t said: “We don’t have enough information.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
