Spokane County is preparing to build one of the county’s most expensive public projects ever. Sewage will be treated there, but it will be called a water reclamation facility because some of the treated wastewater will be reused.

The plant will cost $106 million. An additional $25 million will be needed for connecting to the Spokane River and for connecting sewers to the plant. Spokane County ratepayers will foot the bill. County residents now pay $27.68 a month for sewer services. That could almost double, though no one in the county is saying exactly how much the increase will be.

The proposed site is in the east Spokane area once known as the Stockyards. In about 90 days, county residents will get a clearer idea how much the plant will cost them, and in public hearings they’ll have a chance to brainstorm ways that taxpayers will share the burden of paying for the facility. For instance, they’ll discuss whether seniors and low-income folks should get a break on their bills.

The steep utility bill increase has been predicted for years, but people still aren’t paying much attention. Only 12 attended a public hearing on Wednesday evening. Thursday evening, 53 citizens showed up at a second meeting and “asked a lot of questions about why we needed to do this,” said Bruce Rawls, the county’s utility director.

The “why” begins in history. Spokane’s sewer system has only been in place for about a century and was primitive during its first decades. Street pipes collected raw sewage and sent it down the city’s hills directly into the Spokane River. The city of Spokane’s sewage treatment plant, built in 1958 after much public controversy, processed both city and county waste and still does. But the plant’s capacity to handle more for the county is limited, and county-generated sewage will continue to increase due to housing developments and residents trading septic tanks for sewer hookups.

Sewage disposal is as essential to a community as parks, libraries, courthouses and other government buildings. County citizens will never brag about the water reclamation facility the way they might a new library. But now is the time to talk about the proposed plant, understand how it will work and how it will get paid for. Within a year, the rate increases will show up on county utility bills. It will be too late then to say – or do – much about it.