Recycled-water pipeline part of King County budget

Metropolitan King County Council members voted Friday to put more money into human services and to build sidewalks at a recently opened school on the Sammamish Plateau.

The 13-0 budget vote also authorizes County Executive Ron Sims to begin building pipelines intended to carry recycled water from the planned Brightwater sewage-treatment plant to large water users such as factories, farms, parks and golf courses.

The budget, which comes up for a final vote Monday, adds $6 million to Sims' original proposal of $599 million in general-fund spending.

The package was put together with minimal rancor by a bipartisan leadership team during several days of intense negotiations.

Budget Chairman Larry Gossett said it was the first time in his 12 years on the council he had seen council members agree on a budget without fighting over amendments from the floor.

"We worked hard at having a bipartisan budget that was fair to the people throughout our county," Gossett said.

Friday's vote by the Budget and Fiscal Management Committee sends the spending plan to the full council with a do-pass recommendation.

Passage by the full council is virtually assured, because every member took part in the unanimous committee vote.

"We're very pleased with what they put together, and they kept all the fiscal discipline we asked for," said Kurt Triplett, Sims' chief of staff.

About half of the spending added by the council covers employee cost-of-living adjustments based on data that weren't available when Sims made his original proposal.

Budget Director Bob Cowan said the higher spending is mostly offset by tax revenues, which have continued to rise since the executive's budget proposal was completed at the beginning of October.

Total spending will be $2.6 billion, including capital projects, Metro transit, garbage and sewage. (The more commonly used $3.4 billion budget number counts some expenditures twice.)

The council's budget adds $1.8 million for human services and appropriates $500,000 for sidewalks along Issaquah-Fall City Road at Pacific Cascade Freshman Campus, which opened in September.

Sims said Thursday that he had agreed to the sidewalk project even though the area may soon become part of Issaquah. County Councilman David Irons, who ran against Sims for county executive, championed funding of sidewalks for student safety.

The council budget funds the first installment on a $26 million "backbone" pipeline system that could provide treated wastewater for irrigation to farms, parks, schools, industries and golf courses.

Sims has touted the project as a way to conserve the region's water supplies and protect salmon-bearing rivers as scientists warn that global warming could reduce the winter snowpack, which provides much of the region's water supply. The estimated cost of the project is $129 million, including investments by wholesale buyers of reclaimed water.

But a market study by Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) says the county has exaggerated the probable sales of recycled water. If sales fall short, sewer ratepayers would have to make up the difference.

"Our analysis indicates that there's a way you can meet those environmental goals for a lot less money," said SPU's corporate policy director, Ray Hoffman. Some of those cheaper methods, he said, include more efficient irrigation and planting of shade trees along salmon streams.

King County Natural Resources and Parks Director Pam Bissonnette said monthly sewer rates would only go up by 10 cents per household if the county failed to find any customers for the first phase of its reclaimed-water project.

She predicted brisk sales, however, saying the county expects to sell its water for a lower cost than what Seattle and other water purveyors charge. "That's what's worrying Seattle so much," Bissonnette said. "They see us as a major competitor."

Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com