Sewer Bill Will Rise To Pay Future Costs

Monthly sewer bills will increase $4 over the next three years so Spokane County can start a bank account to help pay for future improvements at the regional sewage-treatment plant.

County commissioners on Tuesday voted to raise sewer rates $2 a month in 1997, and an additional dollar a month in each of the following years. Homeowners currently pay $17.50 per month.

The increase affects each of the county’s 12,500 sewer customers. City officials are considering a similar increase.

Effluent dumped into the Spokane River by the 19-year-old treatment plant doesn’t meet state environmental standards. Engineers say the plant needs at least $50 million in improvements.

Commissioner Steve Hasson championed the rate increase, which the three commissioners approved unanimously.

Without the increase, Hasson said, county residents eventually would face “sticker shock,” as they did in the 1980s when garbage rates skyrocketed to pay for landfill closures and cleanups.

“There’s a historical lesson that is to be learned here,” he said.

Hasson also warned that the state could place a moratorium on new development in the county if the improvements aren’t made.

Commissioners expected a room full of angry taxpayers when they held an initial hearing on the proposal Dec. 3. Few people showed up, so commissioners continued the hearing to give people more time to comment.

In the two weeks since then, no one wrote commissioners to protest the increase. And only one of four speakers Tuesday opposed it.

“This isn’t going to get you (re-)elected,” Valley resident Harold Lundy told commissioners. “But I hope the public will understand that you did what had to be done.”

, DataTimes