PORT ANGELES — Officials with Clallam County and the city of Sequim will consider next month a pact that secures long-term wastewater treatment for Carlsborg homes and businesses.
County commissioners and the Sequim City Council each discussed the draft interlocal agreement in separate Monday meetings and will consider adopting a final version in a date-to-be-determined joint meeting in November.
Meanwhile, public comments are being accepted through Nov. 12 on the county’s independent environmental review of the long-awaited sewer project, which is detailed in a 410-page facilities plan available at www.clallam.net.
Comments on the “mitigated determination of non-significance” can be submitted to county Planning Manager Steve Gray at sgray@co.clallam.wa.us.
County officials hope to build the collection system next year and have it up and running by 2016.
Clallam County for decades has been planning a sewer for the unincorporated community west of the Sequim.
It intends to build a pump station in Carlsborg to collect wastewater and pipe it to the city of Sequim’s water reclamation facility.
“The key right that the county, as the owner of the Carlsborg system, has is the right to discharge wastewater into the city’s system,” said consultant Gordon Wilson of FCS Group, who drafted the interlocal agreement with county Public Works Administrative Director Bob Martin and city Public Works Director Paul Haines.
“The key right that the city has is to get paid for that. That’s the big picture of the overall agreement.”
According to the proposed interlocal agreement, initially, the county would pay the city a 0.98-cent-per-gallon metered rate for operations and maintenance, which includes a 15 percent markup.
Fees would be revised as long-term forecasts change.
“Throughout the agreement, we envision a kind of five-year planning process to look at the forecasts, both the city’s forecast of the available capacity of the treatment plant and the county’s forecast of the Carlsborg system demand,” Wilson told county commissioners Monday.
Carlsborg waste is expected to account for 1.71 percent of the effluent entering the Sequim treatment plant in 2016 and rise to 6.3 percent of the system by 2036.
Clallam County’s share of capital improvements to the system would be based on the amount of capacity used by Carlsborg customers.
“If we have 6.3 percent of the capacity, and we have to make capital improvements to the treatment plant, they take 6.3 percent of that and assess a bill,” Wilson said.
“Of course, there’s communication between the two parties.”
Officials estimate that sewer bills for Carlsborg customers would be $65 to $70 per month.
Those costs will be finalized in a sewer-use ordinance that commissioners will consider in a future public hearing.
Financial incentives will be included in the ordinance to encourage Carlsborg residents to connect to the sewer. Most of the community is on septic systems.
The total cost of piping sewage from Carlsborg to Sequim is projected to be $17.2 million over 15 years.
That’s $4.5 million less than an earlier proposal to build a new treatment plant in Carlsborg.
By 2050, the Sequim option is projected to cost $41.2 million, compared to $54.1 million Carlsborg alternative.
Clallam County would pay for the sewer project with pre-committed funds, connection fees and a $10 million loan it has secured from the state Public Works Trust Fund.
The loan is to be paid back over 20 years through a portion of the county’s opportunity fund for infrastructure projects.
The state Department of Ecology is a reviewing a revised sewer facilities plan that was submitted in July.
According to the preferred alternative in the plan, a pump station would be built on the west side of Carlsborg Road near the Olympic Discovery Trail crossing.
Gravity would carry the wastewater from there across the Dungeness River on the U.S. Highway 101 bridge to a connection with the city’s sewer main at Grant Road.
The interlocal agreement being considered by the two governments would ensure at least 10 years of sewer capacity for the 560-acre Carlsborg Urban Growth Area.
“It’s mean to be indefinite, if all goes well,” Wilson said.
Without sewer infrastructure, the hamlet would lose its urban growth area and its businesses would be unable to expand under the state Growth Management Act.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
