Drafter
Clerk 06/23/2005
Title
AN ORDINANCE approving the June 2005 amendment to the Sammamish Plateau Water and Sewer District Comprehensive Wastewater Plan.
Body
PREAMBLE:
K.C.C. chapter 13.24 requires approval of sewer utility comprehensive plans as a prerequisite to the granting of right-of-way franchises and approval of right-of-way construction permits.
K.C.C. 13.24.090 and 13.24.134 authorize expansion of sewer service in rural areas to meet the needs of public schools only when tightlined, and when based upon a finding by the King County utilities technical review committee ("UTRC") that no cost-effective alternative technology is feasible. The decision on such an expansion is to be made in the form of an approval of a sewer comprehensive plan or of an amendment to such a plan.
The Sammamish Plateau Water and Sewer District ("the district") has an existing comprehensive wastewater plan that was initially approved by King County on August 30, 1983 (Ordinance 6506). That plan has subsequently been amended several times, with the last such amendment approved by King County on May 12, 1995 (Ordinance 11768).
In October 2003, the district's board of commissioners approved a new Draft Wastewater Comprehensive Plan ("draft plan") for distribution and review. The draft plan includes a proposed change in the district's sewer service area boundaries to include a site on the Issaquah-Fall City Road chosen by the Issaquah School District for a new ninth-grade campus. The school site is within the existing district corporate boundaries, adjacent to the existing sewer service area, and in an area designated rural under the King County Comprehensive Plan.
The district issued a determination of nonsignificance ("DNS") for the draft plan on November 4, 2003, in accordance with the state Environmental Policy Act ("SEPA").
In accordance with K.C.C. chapter 13.24, the UTRC reviewed the draft plan on February 11, 2004, and conditionally approved it, pending modifications to the draft plan in response to UTRC comments. King County has not yet received the revised draft plan from the district.
The district is in the process of revising and modifying the full draft plan to respond to comments and changes requested by the city of Sammamish, city of Issaquah and the Department of Ecology, as well as King County, and will submit the updated plan to King County and others for review before adoption of the final plan by the board of commissioners.
The water and sewer district has issued a certificate of sewer availability to the school district for the school. The school district plans to open the school in the fall of 2005. It recently became clear to the water and sewer district and the Issaquah School District that the draft plan would not be adopted in time to allow the new school to connect to sewers in time for the beginning of the 2005/2006 school year. Therefore, in order to meet the construction schedule of the Issaquah School District for the ninth-grade campus, on June 6, 2005, the water and sewer district's board of commissioners adopted Resolution No. 3319, an amendment to its current comprehensive wastewater plan ("June 6 amendment") solely to revise its sewer service area to include service to the Issaquah School District's ninth-grade campus, as was proposed in the draft plan.
Exhibit N to the proposed amendment includes the SEPA DNS issued on November 4, 2003, for the full draft plan, which includes the substantive provisions of the June 6 amendment adopted by the board of commissioners.
On April 20, 2005, the UTRC made the finding required under K.C.C. 13.24.090 and 13.24.134, based on correspondence from the Seattle-King County department of public health, and contingent on receipt from the Issaquah School District of consolidated technical information as to costs and feasibility of wastewater alternatives. The UTRC received the technical information, and confirmed the finding under K.C.C. 13.24.090 and 13.24.134 that no cost-effective alternatives technologies to extended sewer service are feasible at its meeting on May 26, 2005.
On June 8, 2005, the UTRC approved the amendment to the district's draft plan.
The UTRC recommends that the council approve the June 6 amendment.
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KING COUNTY:
SECTION 1. The June 6, 2005, amendment to the Sammamish Plateau Water
and Sewer District Comprehensive Sewer System Plan, Attachment A to this ordinance, is hereby approved without conditions.