Drafter
Clerk 01/18/2011
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AN ORDINANCE approving the Vashon Sewer District Comprehensive Sewer Plan Amendment, August 18, 2010.
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STATEMENT OF FACTS:
1. K.C.C. chapter 13.24 requires approval of comprehensive plans and amendments to plans for sewer utilities as a prerequisite to granting right-of-way franchises and approval for right-of-way construction permits. Approval of a plan amendment is also required under K.C.C. chapter 28.84 if the utility is a component agency of the regional system.
2. Washington state law, RCW 57.16.010(7), requires that any general comprehensive plan of any sewer district 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 must make its determination based on: whether the actions outlined in the plan comply with the development program outlined in the county's comprehensive plan; whether the actions outlined in the plan comply with any approved basin-wide water or sewerage plan; and whether the actions outlined in the plan comply with the policies expressed in any county plan for sewer facilities. The actions proposed in the amendment are consistent with RCW 57.16.010(7).
3. Both Washington state Department of Ecology ("DOE") and King County regulations require sewer plan amendments to be approved prior to the construction of new facilities.
4. The Vashon sewer district ("the district") provides sewer service to a population of approximately two thousand thirty-seven people in a service area of approximately three hundred twenty acres in the central portion of Vashon Island in King County. Its service area includes residential and commercial properties. All of the district's wastewater is treated at King County's Vashon treatment plant.
5. The district is proposing an amendment to change its service area and extend service into the rural area to address a public health and safety problem.
6. K.C.C. 13.24.134 allows the extension of sewer systems to the rural area to address a public health and safety problem threatening the existing uses of a structure provided the sewer service can be tightlined to prevent future connections. A finding must also be made by the King County utilities technical review committee ("UTRC") that no cost-effective alternative technologies are feasible and that an on-site sewer disposal system would not protect basic public health, safety and the environment during the use of the structure.
7. The UTRC reviewed the district's amendment in August 2010, and found that the plan to extend sewer service to address public health and safety concerns with school facilities on parcel numbers 2023039020 and 2923039081 affirms that a specific health and safety problem is threatening an existing structure, that the sewer line can be tightlined and that no cost-effective alternative technologies are feasible.
8. The UTRC recommends that the King County council approve the amendment with the conditions that engineering and design of the side sewer connection be filed with the county consistent with K.C.C. chapter 28.84 and the district demonstrate approval of the amendment from DOE.
9. The district completed a state Environmental Policy Act checklist and issued a determination of nonsignificance for the issuance of the plan amendment on November 2, 2010, and there were no appeals.
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KING COUNTY:
SECTION 1. The Vashon Sewer District Comprehensive Sewer Plan Amendment, August 18, 2010, Attachment A to this ordinance, is hereby conditionally approved as a general sewer and facilities plan amendment. The conditions are that the district provide the utilities technical review committee with a copy of the Washington state Department of Ecology's approval of the amendment to its plan, submit engineering
design details consistent with K.C.C. chapter 28.84 to the utilities technical review committee, and that the side sewer connection be tightlined to preclude future hook-ups.