DALLESPORT — On Aug. 18, all three Klickitat County Commissioners were in Dallesport for a wastewater rate increase hearing for the 437 hookups that are part of the system, and Public Works Director Jeff Hunter explained how the county had received two loans totaling $10,380,000 in 2001 to build it out.
“The system is now well over 20 years old and some of it's reached the end of its life,” he said. “Some of it has been replaced, some of it needs to be replaced. Planned capital projects for the system from this year to 2034, is approximately $3,785,000."
He said the system was self-supporting for operations, but did not generate enough income for capital expenses, which would include replacement of the telemetry panel, influential screens, the north digester gearbox, and oxidation aeration system
To fund that, he said, the county proposed a 10 percent monthly rate increase, which would raise the current rate of $68.07 to $74.88, an increase of $6.81, and to "round up" the cost of connecting fees to $6,000 this year and add $100 every subsequent year.
When a resident expressed concern that a high connection rate would discourage prospective residents, Hunter reminded the audience that only newcomers pay the connection fee.
"I personally would rather have developers pay for improvements than the existing people that are paying,” he said.
The financial modeling was done conservatively to avoid having to implement larger increases in the future, he added. the goal was to hopefully lower the proposed future increases if grants were secured
Ultimately, commissioners voted to allow written testimony through Aug. 21 at and reconvene the hearing at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 25 (after press deadline).
After a 15-minute recess, commissioners opened an hourlong Q & A session. They opened by acknowledging that certain items in the maintenance operation manual agreed upon by the county and the PUD had not been followed for many years, such as providing educational presentations to the community council.
“The county was lax on replacing the parts,” Hunter admitted. “That's not PUD's problem. That's the county's problem."
In response to citizen complaints about unreported sewage spills, Hunter said he had confirmed reports for incidents on Sunridge Avenue and Sandridge Road were, in fact, made to the Department of Ecology.
“The one on Sunridge was a failed PVC pipe, the other one was a failed pump on Sandridge,” he said. “And the third one did not, actually overflow, and that was when they found a piece of rope. And nobody flushes a giant piece of rope down the toilet. It was placed there in a manhole.”
Responding to resident’s dissatisfaction with the operation of the plant by Klickitat PUD, Hunter reminded them that KPUD had received numerous awards from the Department of Ecology, which oversees wastewater treatment plants in the state.
And he said KPUD could operate the plant with 1.5 FTEs, while a new operator would require three to five employees to do the same.
The board did commit to investigating the legal requirements for Dallesport to incorporate as a city. Under state RCWs, if the proposed city is within five miles of another city, it must have a population of 3,000. If not, the requirement drops to 1,500. The question is whether that requirement crosses state lines to involve The Dalles.
And, near the end of the session, County Administrator Robb Van Cleave pointed out, "We're turning a big ship around and it takes a while."
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