LOTT OKs capital projects plan, loan

JOHN DODGE, THE OLYMPIAN

OLYMPIA -- The LOTT Wastewater Alliance is back on track.

After months of wrangling and delays on important finance and policy decisions, the four-member LOTT board voted unanimously Friday to approve a 2002 capital projects plan and an internal loan that will keep the sewer hookup fund solvent.

The board members also voiced support for two more critical actions in the weeks ahead: a $17 million bond issue this spring and a likely boost in the sewer hookup fees.

Monthly sewer rates are not scheduled to change.

"There's a strong sense of moving forward," said Tumwater City Councilwoman Chris Parsons, who was unanimously voted president of the board for 2002, another sign of renewed unity among the Lacey, Olym-pia, Tumwater and Thurston County elected officials serving on the sewer board.

Without action on all of these items, LOTT would run out of money and be forced to halt sewer expansion and improvement projects.

"We either stop or we issue debt," LOTT Executive Director Mike Sharar reminded the board.

Even with the board's sudden flurry of activity, a $4 million project to improve odor control and wastewater treatment at the downtown Olympia plant is delayed, Sharar said.

Also in doubt is the ability to keep spending more than $220,000 a month on the alliance's first satellite wastewater reclamation project at Hawks Prairie, Sharar said.

"We may be back on track, but we're behind where the train should be," he said.

Board conflicts

The months of delay were triggered in large part by a board debate over the shape of a performance audit at the Olympia treatment plant.

The audit was approved two weeks ago, which paved the way for other votes.

"The performance audit was important to my constituents," said board member and Thurston County Commissioner Kevin O'Sullivan. "I think we're moving forward now."

O'Sullivan and Lacey elected officials also were concerned that the sewer expansion plan was based on overly aggressive estimates of how many people will hook up their residences to the sewer -- some 1,500 a year over the 20-year plan.

The financial and capital projects plan for the next six years assumes 920 new hookups per year, a more fiscally conservative approach.

"That's a better number," said Lacey Mayor Graeme Sackrison, who attended the Friday morning sewer utility meeting.

LOTT officials emphasized again Friday that the sewer plan approved by the three cities and county in 1998 always assumed it would be necessary to borrow in the early years of the program, when sewer rates and hookup fees wouldn't be enough to pay for projects.

New sewer line

If the alliance issues its first-ever bond debt this spring as planned, it will be able to complete the new $11 million sewer line from Tumwater to the downtown Olympia plant in concert with the reconstruction of earthquake-damaged Deschutes Parkway, Sharar said.

Otherwise, the road would be built, then torn up again to place the sewer pipe, a move the board members agreed would not sit well with the public.

A decision on a new sewer hookup fee is likely at the Feb. 22 meeting.

The $3,000 fee could increase by $130, followed by annual increases of $65.

Meanwhile, the sewer hookup fund, which is supposed to pay for 88 percent of the costs of growth-related sewer projects, needs a temporary infusion of cash from the sewer ratepayer fund to stay solvent.

The loan was approved Friday, with the assurance that the sewer ratepayer fund would be repaid with interest within 24 months.

John Dodge covers the environment and energy for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-754-5444.

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