Klickitat County officials are preparing to undergo a discussion about how to keep the Dallesport wastewater plant financially healthy and mechanically up-to-date. At a public meeting last week at the Dallesport Community Center, County Commissioner Jacob Anderson asserted that customers had been underpaying on their wastewater bills for years since the facility’s founding in 2002.
The plant, owned by the county and operated by Klickitat Public Utility District, has a significant capital maintenance improvement schedule, Commissioner Dave Sauter said, adding that the county hired a consultant who will be releasing a final report around October detailing needed repairs down the road as well as recommendations on pathways forward to keep the system financially viable.
With the twenty-year bond maturing soon, Sauter said the board was no longer willing to fund capital projects on the system.
Sauter, who guided the discussion at last week’s meeting, said that his aim was to have the community self-reliant for their wastewater needs.
“The rest of the taxpayers don’t want to keep paying for it,” he said.
He said he believes Dallesport should pay their fair share now that the county taxpayers are nearly done with paying off the system.
The plant was built 20 years ago out of a stated need to replace failing septic tanks and grow out the community of Dallesport, Sauter said.
Concerning future ownership of the plant, Klickitat PUD General Manager Jim Smith said during a May 10 PUD meeting that transfer of ownership to the utility district would be “incredibly difficult” without first addressing the maintenance issues, and said he proposed a transfer of ownership after five or six years.
Currently, Dallesport wastewater customers pay $48.93 per month, while Glenwood, Klickitat and Lyle customers all pay over $55 per month; Roosevelt wastewater customers pay $38.31 per month.
Residents attending the meeting expressed concern that if the PUD does not purchase the property, the county would sell it to the highest bidder, possibly a private enterprise, and that ease of access to discussions surrounding the system would be lost, but residents also mostly seemed on board with the idea of self-sufficiency. The conversation evolved to capture possibilities for Dallesport to incorporate as a city and take over ownership of the facility, but commissioners said that the process would be exceedingly challenging.
County commissioner Jacob Anderson said that Dallesport customer rates have been “artificially low,” to the point that the facility does not have the reserves available to meet the demands for maintenance costs, adding that the system was designed for 20 years until major repairs.
Residents said county commissioners should have been more proactive sooner to solve the problem. Sauter agreed, saying that the commission in 2002 set the rates and the annual increase of 3 percent and that more recent commissions were more interested in paying the bills. He added that the Roosevelt Landfill pays a flat fee every year and can subsidize fewer services each year with inflation.
County commissioners revealed at the meeting that they had just applied for a grant to cover the first of the necessary capital costs.
During a back-and-forth between commissioners and residents, Commissioner Dan Christopher said he would be willing to have the county maintain ownership for as long as it takes to work out an agreed-upon financial plan, whether that means raising rates, finding a new owner to take on the capital costs or otherwise, but the goal he said was to reduce the burden on the county budget.
The discussion is set to continue once the consultant releases their final report on the system later this fall, which will identify spending priorities and estimate associated costs.
Commented