Northbound Line

Massive trenches greet many drivers and homeowners in north Spokane these days. Piping is stacked on road beds and manhole covers are appearing on more and more streets as the county’s sewer creeps north.

The north Spokane sewer interceptor is now three years from conception to construction - lightning speed in the world of Spokane County government. When completed next summer, once farflung homes north of the Little Spokane River - 10 miles from downtown - will be sending wastewater to the city’s main treatment plant near Riverside State Park.

“It’s in. This is quick work for the county,” said Skip Chilberg, a former county commissioner who made the project a priority.

Still, the rapid planning has led to some confusion by homeowners and a hodge-podge of connection charges and scenarios, some still being worked out.

Though every homeowner in the unincorporated area is paying for the sewer with a higher surcharge on real-estate sales, not all will receive a benefit.

Older subdivisions such as Pine River along the Little Spokane may not connect for years while new projects farther north will be on sewer next summer.

Subdivisions where septic tanks and drainfields may be failing, such as Wellington Heights off Midway Road, may not connect, while new ones with adequate systems are ready to go.

Some of the first homes built in Wellington have septic systems that are failing due to poor evaporation in the soil.

The county Health District didn’t detect the problem in its initial soil testing.

The neighborhood still may not be able to connect to the sewer, which runs adjacent to it, until 2010.

“There are a lot of different circumstances, and there will be quite a bit of confusion,” said Jim Legat, county utilities director. “That’s just the story of development in the county.”

In the Piper Glen subdivision north of Midway Road, some homeowners cannot easily connect even though the interceptor line is being installed right in front of their homes.

Tom Marr, 30, is one of these.

The developer ran dry-line sewers from his home’s plumbing to the street, as was required by county commissioners. But since he’s in a cul-de-sac, it’s another 30 feet to the street where the interceptor is being built.

He would have to pay the entire cost of extending the line and patching the street.

“I don’t think that’s too kosher,” he said.

“They should have had this planned, then waited for the sewer. Then you wouldn’t have some people getting it and some people not.”

For Dave Bailey, who lives down the street, the dry line runs to the front of his house.

Unfortunately, the interceptor runs along the side.

As a result, he would have to pay for a new connection that would have to go right through his drainfield.

“It’s only 100 feet away, and we won’t see it,” he said of the county’s new sewer line.

The man who lives across the street has already paid a contractor to connect his house to a stub on the interceptor line and said he’s been told he would be paying a $250 connection fee to the county.

But county officials said that amount is unheard of, and the fee this year of $555 will likely increase by spring.

Chad Hutson, a Public Works Department spokesman, is not surprised by the confusion.

Hutson worked an informational table at the Spokane Interstate Fair and talked with dozens of residents about the project.

People know the sewer is coming north and they see the lines and expect sewers at their home in a couple of years.

“That may not be the case,” he said.

Utilities planner Dean Fowler said the county has never built sewer lines to homes through residential streets - unless the interceptor goes that way anyway. But having the interceptor line, 15 to 36 inches in diameter, nearby will allow individual neighborhoods to petition the county for sewers.

Though the county Utilities Department coordinates these petitions, a majority of residents have to agree with the project to proceed.

Utilities staff can then design the system and put together a bid package.

Construction is handled by a private firm.

The typical cost to homeowners for planning, administration, construction and connection could run $5,000.

For people who live in developments with sewer pipes already in the ground, there is still the $555 connection fee.

All county sewer customers also receive a monthly sewer bill, currently $17, for operations.

The homes that will connect to the interceptor next year are in large part those with a private sewer system or pipes already in place. These include most of the Gleneden, Fairwood and Camelot subdivisions as well as Whitworth College.

In other cases, such as the Blackhawk and Wellington Phase Two developments, the county knew the interceptor was planned, and the developers are building homes without septic systems.

The county’s existing interceptor line, finished in 1993, stops just south of Whitworth College.

The new line will travel down Whitworth Drive to Elcliff Avenue.

It crosses Highway 395 near Pattison’s North Roller Rink and follows the highway past Pine Acres Golf Course, Wandermere Mall and Wandermere Golf Course.

The interceptor then follows old Highway 395, going over the Little Spokane River at Dartford Road, the point of lowest elevation.

A new pump station is being built there to get the waste back up to the Whitworth area, where another pump station will take it to the city’s system at Francis and Cedar and on to the wastewater treatment plant on the Spokane River.

The interceptor then goes down Little Spokane River Drive to Columbus Street.

Another segment shoots back up old 395 past Hatch Road, down Piper Glen Court and ends for now at Cooper Lane.

Though the five miles of sewer line are expected to be in the ground by early 1996, the system cannot operate without the pump stations.

The two new pump stations have been delayed by environmental issues and, in one case, boggy soil that required redesign and changes in specifications. Costs increased $300,000, and the whole system may be delayed until June as a result.

All that leaves developers and residents with failing septic tanks wondering if the county can really deliver.

It makes homeowner Marr glad he doesn’t have to worry.

“Hey, as long as I got my septic, I’m fine,” he said.

“You get it pumped every two years, and there are no bills.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 photos (1 color) Graphic: Map of area.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: REAL ESTATE EXCISE TAX HELPS FUNDING North Side suburban residents who wonder how the state Growth Management Act has impacted their lives need look only as far as the new sewer project. With two major pumping stations and five miles of trunk line, the $9 million project is the county’s largest ever on the North Side and a direct result of population, housing and commercial growth north of the city limits. Under state growth management laws, county commissioners must provide adequate infrastructure when they approve new developments. To pay for capital needs, the county was allowed by the Legislature to increase the surcharge on realestate sales, known as the realestate excise tax. They did so, boosting the tax by $250 on a $100,000 home. The tax is paid by the seller of real estate and, including the state share, now adds 1.78 percent to the cost of selling a home. The county expects to raise $1.3 million from the tax increase in 1995 and is using part of that to repay the $5.5 million in bonds for the new sewer interceptor. Those payments, $548,000 for 20 years, have already started. The county also borrowed $2.5 million from a state capital fund for the sewer, and those payments, $150,000 a year for 20 years, will begin in 1996. The new system has the ability to serve 10,000 homes. Bruce Krasnow