Neighborhood Paying Cost Of Sewer Extension

If the Piper Glen sewer extension is finished by early fall, it would be one of the fastest sewer-construction projects ever completed by Spokane County government.

The residents have only themselves to thank.

For the first time ever, 91 property owners of a north suburban neighborhood are paying the entire cost of a sewer extension with no subsidy from state or county government.

The Piper Glen extension will cost some $5,800 per homeowner and bring the existing sewer trunk line from Gleneden up to the homes in Wellington Heights and Midway Elementary School.

The construction will end five years of problems with failing on-site septic tanks. Many systems, supposed to last 20 years, have failed in two or three.

“We didn’t have a whole lot of options with the failing systems,” said Tom Ward, a neighborhood resident who is also an engineer.

Both Ward and resident Todd Scofield contributed time and skills to design the sewer project. Their work saved the neighborhood $15,000 and several construction seasons, said Bruce Rawls, county utilities director.

“We didn’t have to go out and hire a consulting engineer,” said Rawls. “They allowed us to get the construction done this season.

“The neighborhood should be commended for how quickly they acted.”

The septic problems resulted from a layer of silt that sits underneath the soil. Because the claylike layer acts like a sheet of plastic, the soil cannot absorb water as quickly, and sewage backs up, flooding yards.

Several homeowers already have paid to replace their systems. Others have limited water use and were waiting for the sewer.

If residents had not stepped up with their own plan, the area would not have received sewer service until 2010, according to the county’s wastewater plan.

Many of the failing septic systems were installed by developer Harley Douglass but approved by the county Health District, which acknowledged missing the silt layer when it tested the soil for the subdivision plat.

If the tests had been accurate, the Health District could have mandated larger drainfields that would have provided more surface for absorption.

Both Douglass and the Health District denied liability for the problems, according to Ward.

Neighbors talked about hiring an attorney but instead decided the money would be better spent on the sewer project.

Now, systems that were installed recently will be pulled out or filled in, new roads will be torn up, and neighbors will live with a summer of construction.

“It seems to be a big waste,” said Ward. But neighbors who are fed up with the problem are pleased they finally will get a sewer and put the dainage problems behind them.

“Most of them feel we were let down by both the developer and a public agency,” he said. “But we just don’t have the stomach for litigation.”

, DataTimes