Sims' plan for sewer contracts slammed

King County Executive Ron Sims' get-tough approach to sewer-contract negotiations could seriously damage the county's relations with cities and sewer districts, Seattle City Councilman Richard Conlin said Wednesday.

But a Metropolitan King County Council budget committee, trying to hold down charges to new sewer customers, endorsed Sims' proposal to require cities and sewer districts to keep sending their waste to county plants even if they don't have contracts with the county.

A five-year impasse over contract terms has kept most of the county's 30-plus wholesale sewer customers from extending their contracts beyond 2036.

If the county can't guarantee its revenue into the 2050s, Sims has told the council, it will have to sell shorter-term bonds, and the monthly capacity charge to new homes will rise next year from the current $42 a month to $49.75. Sims' ordinance, allowing the county to sell 40-year bonds, would hold the capacity charge to $46.25.

Seattle and other wholesale sewer customers want more say in controlling capital programs that are driving up sewer rates. The biggest project, the Brightwater sewage-treatment plant being built at highways 9 and 522 in Snohomish County, was originally expected to cost $779 million in 1998. Including inflation, Brightwater is now priced at $1.75 billion.

Conlin told the County Council's operating-budget committee that the ordinance "rejects regional partnership in favor of unilateral county action. Once you start down this road, it's a long process to recover. ... This conflict, I feel, could spread to other issues we have to deal with. Frankly, I hope we don't get into that situation."

Conlin said the city might ask the Legislature to change state law, which allows King County to direct cities and sewer districts to send their sewage to the county.

Budget-committee members Dow Constantine, Bob Ferguson and Julia Patterson voted unanimously for Sims' ordinance, which will soon go to the full County Council.

"I'm concerned about the issues raised, particularly by my friend Councilmember Conlin," Constantine said. "On the other hand, I don't feel I can delay this matter at the risk of increasing the costs to my constituents and ratepayers."

Seattle wants the sewage contract to spell out how Brightwater costs will be split between existing and future sewer customers. Seattle and King County's suburban customers also want what Conlin called "a true voice" in sewer operations.

Sims has resisted those proposals, saying they would limit the county's ability to respond to changing conditions.

Sims' proposal has infuriated suburban sewer officials. The Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish counties has endorsed it.

Conlin, who chairs the City Council's utilities committee, is the first Seattle official to directly challenge the ordinance in front of the County Council.

Pam Bissonnette, county director of natural resources and parks, called the ordinance "an interim measure" to keep rates down.

"We are going back to the negotiating table," she said. "We want to have contracts."

Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105