Drafter
Clerk 08/06/2010
Title
AN ORDINANCE approving the City of Auburn Comprehensive Sewer Plan, September 2009.
Body
STATEMENT OF FACTS
1. K.C.C. chapter 13.24 requires approval of comprehensive plans for sewer utilities as a prerequisite to granting right-of-way franchises and approval for right-of-way construction permits. Such plans or their updates must be submitted to the county at least once every six years, and more frequently if circumstances call for an earlier submittal.
2. K.C.C. 13.24.060 requires that such plans be consistent with the requirements of any comprehensive plans or development regulations adopted under chapter 36.70A RCW or any other applicable comprehensive plan, land use plan, or development regulation adopted by a city, town, or county for the service area. The King County Comprehensive Plan, which includes wastewater policies in its provisions for facilities and services (policies F-245 through F-254), also calls for consistency with other adopted plans, support for regional water supply planning, pursuit of reclaimed water and water conservation, and protection of water resources.
3. Both Washington state Department of Ecology ("DOE") and King County regulations require sewer plans to be approved prior to construction of new facilities.
4. The city of Auburn ("the city") provides sewer service to a 2007 population of over forty-nine thousand eight hundred ninety-four and an employment base of thirty thousand two hundred seventy-nine in the city, which is in the southern portion of King County. Its service area includes the entire city and a small part of unincorporated King County. Its service area is a mixture of residential, commercial and roadway properties, with no major industrial customers, and includes a small portion of park and open spaces. The city's facilities discharge to the regional wastewater system operated by King County.
5. The city's service area is largely built out except for the Lea Hill area. Its anticipated growth through 2028 will be largely mixed-use development and redevelopment construction. In addition, the city expects to accommodate additional flows as a result from providing sewers to a portion of its service area that does not currently have service. By 2028, it expects to be serving a residential population of approximately seventy thousand four hundred forty people as a result of both growth and annexations. The city is proposing with this plan to expand the service area to cover a portion of the area near the southwest corner of the city and outside the city proper, the Jovita Heights area.
6. The city's principal operational issue, aside from extending service to certain small areas without service, is inflow and infiltration into the city's facilities during rain events. The city participated with the county in the regional investigation of the origins and magnitude of those flows from different portions of its service area, using a series of tests and metering of wastewater flows into the city's system. It anticipates developing a strategy for reducing those flows in concert with the county.
7. The county's most recent approval of the city's sewer plan occurred in 2002.
8. The King County utilities technical review committee ("UTRC") reviewed the city's 2009 plan update ("the plan") in May 2010. K.C.C. chapter 13.24 requires review of wastewater plans by the UTRC, and a recommendation to the King County executive and council on the plan and the requirements under K.C.C. chapter 13.24 and consistency with the King County Comprehensive Plan. The planning data and proposed operations were reviewed by the UTRC, and the plan was found to be consistent with:
a. the population and employment forecasts developed for the service area were appropriately used;
b. King County land use classifications;
c. WAC 173-240-050; and
d. pertinent county adopted plans and policies.
9. The UTRC also found that, with revisions and additional information supplied by the city, the plan sufficiently addresses the specific issues required to be addressed under K.C.C. 13.24.010.H, including opportunities for the use of reclaimed water. The UTRC recommends that the King County council approve the plan.
10. The DOE has reviewed but not yet approved the plan as consistent with RCW 90.48.110 and chapter 173-240 WAC.
11. The city completed a state Environmental Policy Act checklist and issued a determination of nonsignificance for the issuance of the plan on September 17, 2009. There was no appeal of the determination.
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KING COUNTY:
SECTION 1. The City of Auburn Comprehensive Sewer Plan, September 2009, Attachment A to this ordinance, is hereby approved as a general sewer and facilities plan.