Plan Sought for Rising Sewer Costs : Development: System expansion is needed for new housing and businesses that huge church project will deliver.

Less than a week after approving one of the city’s biggest development projects, the City Council must find a way to pay for the sewer expansion needed to serve the new housing and businesses.

A Friday morning tour of the Hill Canyon waste-water treatment plant failed to convince councilwomen Elois Zeanah and Jaime Zukowski to support raising sewer rates 70% to pay for a proposed $75-million expansion of the plant.

“I have not changed my opinion about the scale of what is required,” Zukowski said. “It’s just like any major public works facility, it does need some repairs, but there is nothing to justify a 70% increase in sewer rates.”

Last month, Zukowski and Zeanah were the only council members to resist approval of a plan to pay for the expansion, which includes increasing capacity and making seismic and environmental improvements to the 35-year-old plant. Because a rate increase requires at least a 4-1 vote, the plan failed.

The pair also opposed the massive Seventh-day Adventist Church residential and commercial development, which nonetheless was approved on a 3-2 vote. Officials say that project could overtax the current waste-water treatment system.

The sewage plant expansion issue returns to the council Tuesday for another round of negotiations. Zukowski and Zeanah agree that some work needs to be done on the plant, including replacing aging canyon lines, and said they would agree to some increase in sewer fees to pay for it.

Zeanah suggests $1.80 a month per household, far smaller than the $7 increase proposed in November.

After the financial plan was questioned and voted down in November, City Atty. Mark Sellers said the city was opening itself to huge liability problems. He explained there are developments and corporate expansions already approved that need more capacity than the plant has available.

Hill Canyon can handle 10.8 million gallons of waste water a day, but to meet the city’s anticipated growth it must be updated to handle 14 million gallons a day, city officials say.

If the expansion is not carried through, Sellers said, developers and corporations would have grounds to sue the city. Among the companies mentioned by name was biotech giant Amgen, which plans to greatly expand in the next 10 years.

But according to Amgen spokeswoman Lynne Connell, the company is under the impression there is already enough capacity in the city’s system to take them through at least 2005, when Amgen’s expansion--approved by the city last year--should be complete.

“We believe that we have adequate sewer capacity now and in the near future,” Connell said.

The two holdout councilwomen have dismissed the talk of possible lawsuits against the city as scare tactics designed to pressure them to approve the financial plan. The majority council--Judy Lazar, Mike Markey and Mayor Andy Fox--say the fear is real.

But that fear was apparently cast aside--or at least forgotten--earlier this week when the council voted 3 to 2 to approve the Seventh-day Adventist project.

According to the environmental review of the $150-million church project, it will send an additional 330,000 gallons of waste water a day through the city pipelines.

Assuming the financial plan for the expansion is approved and the work is done, Hill Canyon could easily handle that extra 330,000 gallons from the church’s project. But with the finances still uncertain, some question the action of approving yet another development.

“It is [putting] the cart before the horse,” Zukowski said.

Fox conceded that the city may have actually thrown another potential litigant into the soup by approving the church’s plan.

“Yes, I guess that could possibly be correct,” Fox said. “I guess you could say that.”

Don Nelson, director of public works for the city, said that ideally the council would have approved a financial plan for waste-water expansion before adding such a large new customer.

“Ideally, yes,” Nelson said. “Is it absolutely imperative? No.”

Markey, who had warned several weeks ago that he might propose a moratorium on development to stave off lawsuits, said he had no reservations about voting for the church’s project because he now believes the council can work out its differences on the waste-water issue.

“I’m confident that my colleagues are professionals and that we can work it out,” Markey said.