Liberty Lake Residents Miss Out On County Sewer Rate Increase

Liberty Lake Sewer District customers will not be included in the county’s proposed sewer rate increase, said district manager Lee Mellish.

Spokane County’s 12,000 sewer customers would pay an additional $4 a month over the next three years as part of a plan to build a savings account to pay for improvements at the city-county sewage treatment plant in the Downriver area. About 10,000 of the county’s sewer customers live in the Valley.

But the Liberty Lake Sewer District, which has 1,200 customers, has its own treatment plant, located just north of the freeway. The service district includes homes surrounding the lake and extends north to the freeway. The area is bordered to the east by the foothills just east of the lake and to the west by Henry Road, near the Appleway overpass.

The regional sewage treatment plant, built in 1977, must be improved to meet state environmental standards. Currently, the plant exceeds limits for the amount of ammonia it dumps into the river. By the year 2001, it will exceed the limit for phosphorus, which causes algae blooms in Long Lake downstream from the plant.

It needs between $50 million and $62 million in improvements to keep handling the sewage it now treats every day, said Utilities Director Bruce Rawls.

Rawls said the county could collect about $800,000 a year with the rate increase. The plan stipulates that sewer rates increase $2 next year, $1 in 1998 and another $1 in 1999. That’s on top of the $17.50 county sewer customers now pay each month.

Liberty Lake customers now pay $18.75 a month for service, said Mellish, who added that he did not expect any rate increases next year.

, DataTimes