River cleanup comes with a cost

POST FALLS - Post Falls and Rathdrum wastewater rates are proposed to increase 60 percent over the next five years to help fund $30 million in treatment plant upgrades needed to meet future discharge permit requirements aimed at cleaning up the Spokane River.

The Post Falls City Council will hold a public hearing on the wastewater funding and improvement plan on a date to be determined, most likely Feb. 19.

Mike Neher, Post Falls' environmental manager, said the city is being mandated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to make the facility upgrades to improve the river's conditions over the next several years.

"We expect that EPA will allow time to build the necessary treatment facilities to reach the lower limits (of phosphorous and metals) by 2021," Neher said.

Increases in both existing wastewater rates and capitalization fees, one-time charges to new customers, are part of the funding plan.

Rates are proposed to increase 14 percent each year during fiscal years 2014 and 2015, 10 percent in 2016, 9 percent in 2017 and 7 percent in 2018. For the average monthly bill during those years, the amounts would increase from $33.64 to $49.20.

Capitalization fees are proposed to increase $95 - from $4,659 per to $4,755 - and will be updated on an annual basis.

Rathdrum residents will also be affected by the increases because Post Falls treats Rathdrum's wastewater. The fee increases have been expected for several years due to the pending permit, but proposed details on the increases have recently been exposed with the city's planning efforts.

Coeur d'Alene and the Hayden Area Regional Sewer Board, which also discharge treated wastewater into the river, also face facility upgrades, so their customers will also see rate hikes brought on by the new permits.

The Post Falls plan, in addition to calling for upgrades needed to meet the future permit, also contemplates a growth rate of 1 percent (154 to 161 new connections) per year and an annual operating and maintenance cost of $2.7 million to $3.6 million per year.

"We have to pay for the additional treatment that we are required to provide," said Terry Werner, Post Falls' public works director. "If we do not meet permit limits, we can be fined up to $37,500 per day for each occurrence. So, in reality, we will pay for the requirements one way or another."

The city would likely obtain the funding through a 20-year bond using the "judicial validation" process, which would not require a vote. The rate hikes would be needed to pay for the bond.

"The city has to comply (with the permit), so it really renders a vote useless," said Shelly Enderud, city administrator. "The city has the legal authority to issue bonds for items that are ordinary and necessary as defined by law. The city does not really have the authority of not moving forward (with the upgrades)."

Pilot testing is scheduled to be complete by 2016.

"This is a lot of different projects to get to the end and we will see construction on a regular basis at the plant to meet these requirements," Werner said.

The new discharge permit proposal is expected to be released for public comment as soon as February.

The city's current discharge permit calls for removing at least 70 percent of the phosphorous in wastewater from March to October. (There are no limits for November through February.)

The Post Falls plant is already removing 95 percent of the phosphorous, but will be required to remove about 99 percent of it from Feb. 1 to Oct. 31 under the proposed permit.

Phosphorous leads to algae growth and the depletion of oxygen from water that fish need to live.

Land application of treated wastewater is also part of Post Falls' and Rathdrum's wastewater future, although that process isn't expected to start for at least a few more years, Werner said.

Post Falls owns 628 acres on the Rathdrum Prairie for land application, while Rathdrum owns 320. The wastewater facility plan recommends buying more property for land application, but that would come in the second 20 years of the plan.

"Land application buys us relief for (the summer months)," Werner said.

Werner said that while some have feared the wastewater costs will cripple future growth in Kootenai County, he doesn't believe it will be as bad as originally thought.

"Our whole area will be seeing these increases," he said.