Drafter
Clerk 07/31/2009
Title
AN ORDINANCE approving the Southwest Suburban Sewer District 2006 Comprehensive Sewer Plan Update.
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. The 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 the 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 water supply and wastewater policies in its provisions for facilities and services (policies F-225 through F-244), likewise 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. RCW 57.16.010(6) requires that any general comprehensive plan of any water-sewer ditrict be approved, conditionally approved or rejected by the legislative authority of every county within whose boundaries all or a portion of the district lies. The county legislative authority is to make its determination based on:
a. whether the actions outlined in the plan comply with the development program outlined in the county's comprehensive plan;
b. whether the actions outlined in the plan comply with any approved basin wide water or sewerage plan; and
c. whether the actions outlined in the plan comply with the policies expressed in any county plan for water and/or sewage facilities.
4. Both Washington state Department of Ecology and King County regulations require sewer plans to be approved before commencement of construction.
5. The Southwest Suburban sewer district ("the district") provides sewer service to over fourteen thousand commercial and residential customers in a service area of approximately seven thousand six hundred twenty acres in the southwest portion of King County. Its service area includes all or portions of the cities of Burien, Des Moines, Normandy Park, SeaTac and Seattle, 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 district's facilities include two treatment plants, in the Miller Creek and Salmon Creek basins, that discharge directly into Puget Sound, and are not part of the regional wastewater system operated by King County. The district also treats some wastewater flows from adjacent sewer service providers, pursuant to written agreements.
6. The district's service area is largely built out. Its anticipated growth through 2025 will be largely single-family infill and apartment construction. In addition, the district expects to accommodate additional flows from an aggressive annexation effort to provide sewers to the roughly twenty-seven percent of the district's service area that remains unsewered. It expects to reduce that figure to at most ten percent by 2030. By 2025, it expects to be serving a residential population of sixty-one thousand eight hundred fifty-seven as a result of both growth and annexations.
7. The district's principal operational issue, aside from extending service to unsewered pockets of existing development within the district's service area, is inflow and infiltration into the district's facilities during rain events. The district will be investigating 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 district's system from adjacent wastewater utilities. It anticipates developing a strategy for reducing those flows. Because the district has its own treatment plants, and is not connected to the regional wastewater system operated by King County, the inflow and infiltration problem has no direct effect on the regional system.
8. The county's most recent approval of the district's sewer plan occurred in April 1999.
9. The King County utilities technical review committee ("UTRC") reviewed and approved the district's 2006 plan update ("the plan") in July 2006, subject to revisions being made and information submitted in response to comments from the UTRC. K.C.C. chapter 13.24 requires review of wastewater plans by the UTRC, and a recommendation made 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. The UTRC found the plan to be consistent with:
a. the population and employment forecasts developed by the Puget Sound Regional Council for the service area were considered and, with a customized forecast, was appropriately used;
b. King County land use classifications;
c. WAC 173-240-050; and
d. pertinent county adopted plans and policies.
10. The UTRC also found that, with revisions and additional information supplied by the district, 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 further found that the plan complies with the criteria of RCW 57.02.040, and contains a capital improvement program and funding strategy that will accommodate anticipated growth. The UTRC recommends that the King County council approve the plan.
11. The Washington state Department of Ecology has reviewed and approved the plan as consistent with RCW 90.48.110 and chapter 173-240 WAC.
12. The district completed a state Environmental Policy Act checklist and issued a determination of nonsignificance for the issuance of the plan on March 15, 2006.
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KING COUNTY:
SECTION 1. The Southwest Suburban Sewer District 2006 Comprehensive
Sewer Plan Update, Attachment A to this ordinance, is hereby approved as a general sewer and facilities plan.
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