Sewer District Doubles Down at Bonnie Brae

October 1 deadline to sign up or pay “availability” charge

By Margie Doyle

The Eastsound Sewer and Water District has long tried to get residents of the Bonnie Brae OPAL neighborhood, off Enchanted Forest Road, to hook up to the sewer lines connecting to their homes.  At their Aug. 14 meeting, ESWD Commissioners resolved to replace the “carrot” of incentives with the “stick” of an “availability” charge of $48 per month until hook-up is accomplished.

Last month, a notice was sent out to some 55 households in the Bonnie Brae and OPAL Commons (between Seaview and Blanchard Streets west of the airport) neighborhoods, which announced an Oct. 1 deadline to choose between:

1) signing up for the reduced, low-income rate
2) pay a monthly $48 availability fee until sewer hookup is agreed to.

The notice reads in part: “Eastsound Sewer & Water District is committed to following through with its existing policies and procedures … for mandatory connection to the sewer system….  for all properties inside the Eastsound Urban Growth Area.”

“…the District has established a policy for granting a temporary credit for a 50% reduction… for those who quality as Low-Income when connecting to the sewer system. That Facility Charge (connection charge) will increase by $700 to $7,400 per ERU on October 1 2012. Application for sewer service needs to be made before October 1, 2012 to qualify for the lesser amount, or if you qualify as Low-Income to take advantage of the temporary credit in Facility Charges.”

Those Bonnie Brae homeowners who agree to connect to the Sewer District by October 1, 2012 will pay a $3,350 facility charge rather than a $6,700 charge. In addition to the Oct. 1, 2012 deadline for applying for the reduced low-income rate, the notice stipulates the ESWD will impose a $48 per month fee to those who do not agree to sign on by Oct. 1, 2012, in the Bonnie Brae neighborhood, and by Oct. 1, 2019 in the OPAL Commons neighborhood.

The resolution signed at the Aug. 14 meeting of  the ESWD Board of Commissioners — Greg Ayers, Dave Lowry, Ed Sutton and Carl Yurdin — also states, “upon actual connection of the parcel to the District’s sewer system, the availability charge shall terminate and regular sewer service charges shall commence.”

Bonnie Brae homeowners have contended in various meetings that their individual septic systems are not failing and are adequate to provide healthy water to their neighborhood. The ESWD argues that it is required by state law to ensure that health standards are met; and that those standards require hookup to the district’s sewer lines.

Lisa Byers, Executive Director of OPAL, which owns the land the permanently affordable homes occupy, said, “I view the Sewer District Commissioners’ latest decision to charge a monthly fee–purportedly to be $48–regardless of whether or not a household is using the Sewer District’s system as an abuse of power.

“I believe the Commissioners are concerned about the quality of our drinking water. We all are. But the science does not substantiate their conclusion, and definitely does not support their urgency. They provided less than two months’ notice that they would start charging this new fee.

“I hope the Commissioners reconsider their actions. Their dogmatic behavior is unbecoming of elected officials and their actions are uncivilized.”

Former ESWD Commissioner Rollie Sauer, who resigned from the ESWD Commission in late June, agrees with most Bonnie Brae residents who call this charge a penalty. Sauer said, “When I resigned as a commissioner from the ESWD in late June of this year, the commissioners were trying to find incentives, “carrots” in their words, to induce all homeowners in the UGA currently not connected to the sewer to hook-up…with which I totally agree.  Thus, I applaud the ESWD for giving low-income homeowners residing within the UGA who have not hooked-up to the sewer a 50% reduction of the connection charge, a savings of $3,750.

“However, these low-income homeowners would have to come up with $3,750 and pay it to the ESWD within days from the date the notice was sent to the homeowners; or, if paid after 10/01/12, the connection charge would be $7,400. Then, not only that, if they can’t raise the money, a monthly penalty called an “availability charge” of $48 will begin being billed to the folks least able to pay it…that’s $576 per year.  Somehow, this doesn’t seem to qualify as a carrot…rather, as a punishment.

“Among the reasons I cited for resigning from the sewer district was that it had become increasingly difficult to work with Commissioners who:

• put the need to hook up everyone in the UGA as their utmost priority, but have little compassion for the devastating financial impact to low income families;
• used elevated nitrate levels in local wells to explain (to the public) that septic systems are polluting our aquifer, even though all wells tested were negative for caffeine (the gold standard for such determinations), and they were unwilling to do a test to determine if the nitrate levels are the result of surface water intrusion (a known cause of elevated nitrate levels.)”

Bonnie Brae resident Jane Alden has said, “Never has the legality of their actions been explained, expressed, or even confirmed, and yet we are told by some that we cannot win against them.”

Eastsound Attorney Adina Cunningham (formerly County Deputy Prosecutor) advised the Bonnie Brae homeowners in this matter, and represented them to the ESWD in an attempt to reach some kind of consensus with the Sewer District, “which we were not able to do,” she said.  They had asked for the same consideration as the 2019 deadline for the OPAL Commons neighborhood, but Cunningham says, “It became clear this spring — in open public meetings –that the ESWD Commissioners wouldn’t agree to that.”

Sue Kimple, General Manager of ESWD wrote, “The availability charge will be assessed to all properties that are on notice to connect and whose time has expired and have not yet done so. So all properties inside the UGA boundaries are required to connect and have been given notice to connect if their property abuts or is in close proximate to a sewer main line.

“OPAL Commons was originally given fifteen years from the date of notification for the requirement to connect. The Board (at that time) decided to stand by the time period given in the original notification and the current Board, rather than go back on the District’s word in the matter, felt they had to abide by that original notification.  So….. those in OPAL Commons that have not yet connected in 2019 will be required to do so at that time and they will also be required to pay the connection charges in effect at that time.”

Cunningham said, “I hope this doesn’t go to litigation. There is case law saying sewer districts may assess availability charges to properties that have the ability to hook up. Every situation is different and particular facts vary. A court would decide on a case by case basis.”

She added, “The Bonnie Brae homeowners are doing their best to comply with septic system standards and work with the Sewer District. While the Sewer District’s general environmental concerns may be legitimate, there is no evidence that any Bonnie Brae septic systems are failing or are contaminating the ground water.”

Kimple replied to an inquiry from another Bonnie Brae homeowner, “The State Auditor’s office as well as our own attorney reviewed the policy thoroughly before granting the District permission to implement the policy.”

There will be a regular meeting of the ESWD at 4:45 p.m. today, Sept. 11, at its offices at Schoen Lane off North Beach Road. Public comment will be heard at this meeting.