Sewer pact a raw deal for OC, Gladstone and West Linn

By Paul Edgar

, Jul 22, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

ADVERTISEMENTS

There is a Wastewater Treatment Partnership Agreement that is in the process of being pushed down the throats of the citizens and ratepayers of the Tri-Cities Service District – Oregon City, West Linn and Gladstone – by Clackamas County. It will result in a betrayal of the interests of the citizens of each of these cities, by placing them into a position in which their wastewater treatment rates can be increased over a period of time by maybe four- or five-times or greater over what they are presently paying. The citizens of each of these cities will become partners (married without the ability of divorce) to the Clackamas County Service District and equally obligated to fund any and all contingencies to provide wastewater services throughout the CCSD service areas. The CCSD contingencies are so great that they can result in a billion dollars of expenditures. Just look at the uresolved problems and contingencies of the CCSD, like Milwaukie’s Kellogg Wastewater Treatment plant and what it would take to replace it.

There is no projected need to add capacity to the TCSD Plant facilities at this time and/or in the immediate future. Currently TCSD is leasing capacity to CCSD and accruing funds over and above what is needed that can be in the future used to fund future capacity expansion, when needed, at the TCSD facilities. Clackamas County (CCSD) is also adding additional capacity at this time to the Tri-Cities plant at their own expense for their needs. Sharing the plant footprint, engineering and operational costs keeps our sewer rates and exposure low. Because of good planning, the wholesale cost per home (they use the term EDU) connection is now $12 in the TCSD service area. Compare this to CCSD sewer rates of $34.85 per EDU (Equivalent Dwelling Unit).

This proposed partnership agreement is a vehicle to permanently obligate each household in Oregon City, West Linn and Gladstone for additional bonding to construct greater wastewater treatment capacity at the Tri-Cities Plant for all of the Clackamas County areas serviced by CCSD. CCSD services significant unincorporated areas like Clackamas Town Center and most of the areas along and on both sides of I-205 and McLoughlin Boulevard. It also includes the cities of Milwaukie, Happy Valley and Damascus.

The expressed desire is to create a singular wastewater treatment plant for the majority of this TCSD and CCSD area in Oregon City at the Tri-Cities plant facilities. It has also been publicly expressed that upon reaching rate parity between TCSD and CCSD it would then result in the probability of an official merger between the two entities. What does that mean to the residents/rate payers of Oregon City, West Linn and Gladstone when the Clackamas County Board of Commissioners create sewer rate parity and how would that happen?

Shutting down and decommissioning of the Kellogg Wastewater Treatment Plant would mean redirecting all of the sewage currently going to this facility to Oregon City. It is a big deal to the residents of Milwaukie as much it is to the citizens of Oregon City, West Linn and Gladstone.

The implications of the overall growth in commercial and residential activity in Clackamas County, found in its cities and unincorporated areas in the county, must be addressed. The failure to charge and collect adequate System Development Charges, or impact fees, over the years to fund the future needed infrastructure facilities brought on by the Urban Growth Plan and policies pushed by Metro and accepted by Clackamas County must now be addressed. Now the Clackamas County Board of Commissioners, the governing board of TCSD and CCSD, are asking the citizens of Oregon City, West Linn and Gladstone to bail out these failed growth policies.

Losing the advantage of our low sewer treatment hurts everyone in Oregon City, West Linn and Gladstone in a big way. Not only are the residents marginalized (seniors and low income) but the same negative effect is played out on the businesses. It hurts future economic development within the cities, critically needed to reverse the outflow of its citizens to find family-wage jobs that do not exist close to where they live. It also hurts our roads and highways by placing unrealistic demands on these commuters and subsequently the environment with greater emissions.

Years ago we moved the Oregon City sewer facilities off the Willamette River and upgraded it to meet the needs of the Tri-Cities (Oregon City, West Linn and Gladstone) and in doing so allowed Clackamas County to become the operating and financing entity. Clackamas County at that time had the bonding and governance ability to consolidate a TCSD plant that the individual cities did not possess. The citizens/rate payers of Oregon City, West Linn and Gladstone, however, are the equity owners.

Clackamas County leveraged financing to build the Tri-Cities facility based on the requirement that all households within the three cities would be required to connect to this Tri-Cities facilities where each of the cities locally provide and maintain their own connectors. The Clackamas County Board of Commissioners became the governing body that oversees operation of the Tri-Cities plant. Through a set of twists and turns and legal actions an advisory group was selected from the combining of Clear Water and Water Environmental Services but with little or NO real citizens/rate payer input.

The interests of ratepayers in Oregon City, West Linn and Gladstone are being betrayed if this Wastewater Treatment Partnership Agreement is approved!