Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

Cooperative effort
Plan submitted to OEPA for sewer districts

Thursday, July 21, 2005

lBy MACKENZIE WHITE
ThisWeek Staff Writer

In an attempt to end ''sewer wars'' and the duplication of services, the city of Pickerington, village of Canal Winchester and Fairfield County have agreed to work together to define sewer districts in the county.

As part of the agreement, Pickerington submitted an outline defining the districts to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency at the end of June.

Councilman Mitch O'Brien, service committee vice chairman, said the outline is preliminary until a final version becomes part of the state's larger sanitary sewer service plan in December.

The Ohio EPA uses the information in the plan when issuing sanitary sewer treatment and collection permits, he said.

''This is a place-holder with us with the EPA to say, 'We're working on this together. We've agreed to this much,''' O'Brien said.

Mayor David Shaver said the plan is twofold: ''The whole point of the plan is to make sure that parties aren't providing redundant services,'' he said.

He said one corollary of that could be to help stop what he called ''annexation wars.''

O'Brien said ''sewer wars'' can begin when governments extend lines into undeveloped areas, then may struggle to build more homes to pay for the new infrastructure.

He said Pickerington officials contacted the county and Canal Winchester to ask them to work together to end such battles.

''Basically, we've agreed to our own service territories,'' he said. ''... We looked at the existing sewer lines that are in the ground and we've more or less defined the boundaries based on who already has the lines in the ground.''

For areas with no sewer lines, he said, they decided that whichever entity is closest should service that area.

The largest benefit to Pickerington residents, he said, should be that they won't need to worry about paying twice for the same service.

''Pickerington residents are also Fairfield County taxpayers, so if there's duplication of services being provided, they're paying for it twice,'' he said.

This can happen, he said, because the county pays for sewer expansions and improvements through its general fund, while the city pays for sewer plant expansions through tap fees.

The only way to pay off sewer debt is to build new homes, O'Brien said, but if not enough new houses go up, the existing subscribers pay for the expansions through user fees.

Shaver said another benefit is that the plan addresses efforts to protect wetlands and other natural resources.

''One of the concerns, because it is through the Ohio EPA, is to make sure that the services utilized are the most environmentally sound,'' he said.

Once complete, O'Brien and Shaver said, the plan will offer insight into long-term strategies.

''It gives us an idea of planning for future sewer expansions and in the areas that we've agreed to serve,'' O'Brien said. ''And rather than do a wholesale expansion to the maximum capacity for discharge allowed by (the) EPA, we can plan for smaller incremental (expansions) to meet the needs and better manage the debt.''

This Week Guest Column (part 1)

Plan attempts to end 'sewer wars'
Mitch O'Brien

A depressed economy and rapid growth have been a one-two punch to local communities that have to pay for infrastructure improvements needed to support new development. Despite the fiscal problems associated with supporting new growth, the extension of sewer lines into virgin Fairfield County farmland could lead to ''sewer wars'' if left unchecked.

For municipalities, infrastructure planning and development speculation quickly brings up the issue of annexation. Consequently, in the ever-changing landscape of local government, multiple entities have duplicated their planning efforts with regard to particular properties. This duplication has led to a sense of urgency.

The governmental entity that supplies sewer service has the biggest stake in managing growth, and in determining where growth will occur. This control is exercised either by withholding service, or by planning for and providing service.

Extending sewer lines into undeveloped areas is a form of speculation. Development must ensue in order to pay for the new lines and the plant expansion. If new housing doesn?’t materialize, the system?’s existing customers must pay for the expansion of the system, even though it is not being used.

As sewer bills rise to pay for expansion, pressure mounts on local governments to pursue more rooftops to pay for sewer infrastructure. This puts these governments in a weakened bargaining position, and the building industry knows it. Local builders pit governmental entities against one another to establish a bidding war in an attempt to lower fees. And it has worked for the builders.

The combination of speculation regarding areas of future growth and the ability of developers to pit communities against one another is the dynamic that drives Fairfield County toward ?“sewer wars?”.

Happily, the prospect of ''sewer wars'' is about to come to an end. At the end of June of this year, Pickerington submitted a preliminary outline to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) that defines water and sewer districts in Fairfield County. This outline represents the collaborative efforts of Canal Winchester, Fairfield County, and Pickerington (The Big Three) to eliminate duplication of services.

The State of Ohio, in accordance with the Clean Water Act, has previously implemented and regularly updated a sanitary sewer service plan, which is commonly referred to as the 208 Plan. The statewide 208 Plan is a compilation of information solicited from local governments such as Pickerington and Fairfield County. This information is used by the Ohio EPA in planning and issuing permits for sanitary sewer collection and treatment.

The agreement among The Big Three will fit into a bigger blueprint for the Scioto River Basin, part of the statewide the 208 Plan. It was in November of 2000 that Columbus last completed an update to the overall wastewater facility planning for the greater metropolitan area. Input from Pickerington and northwest Fairfield County factored in the report.

That update was incorporated into the Governor?’s certification of the Central Scioto Section 208 Plan in January of 2001. In that version of the 208 Plan, Pickerington had a core service area, and some additional territory that overlapped with Canal Winchester and Fairfield County.

While the OEPA generally does not endorse the concept of overlapping service areas, it has generally refrains from interfering in disputes concerning overlapping service areas that involve only local funding. As a result, the OEPA has not intervened in Fairfield County.

The OEPA has been hands off because stakeholders in the development of the 208 Plan requested that the OEPA allow the local governments to resolve the issues involved in overlapping service areas. That?’s how we got to where we are now.
continued...

This Week Guest Column (part 2)

The agreement submitted in June has taken some time to draft because it is quite complex and detailed. Updated service area maps had to be provided. Evaluations of current sewer conditions and a 20 year forecast of future sewer needs had to be compiled. Most importantly, The Big Three had to agree in writing to provide services as indicated in the 208 Plan.

The 208 Plan is still a work in progress. The draft of the wastewater treatment plan sent to the OEPA in June will be reviewed and revised during the next six months. A final binding version of the plan is expected to become incorporated into the state plan in December. The Big Three will still be able to amend the finalized plan when they agree that the situation warrants.

It should be noted that the OEPA 208 plan is a set of guidelines that can be used by local governments to have local plans incorporated into the statewide water quality management plan. It is up to the local jurisdictions to devise a workable model that will be compatible with the state plan.

As central Ohio continues to deal with the problems associate with sustained growth, cooperation among governmental agencies is essential to the wise use of scarce resources. This is the sustaining principle behind regionalism.

To date, there has been much more lip service than action associated with the concept of regionalism. The collaborative effort of The Big Three to hammer out water and sewer districts is a shining example of what responsible planning can accomplish. We all benefit when we work together.

Mitch O'Brien is vice-chair of Pickerington City Council's Service Committee

one vote

I hope all the city voters keep in mind that all the progress of the new admistration is only one vote away from being erased.

IF you do not elect honest, resposible council members in November....get out your wallets to build your new sewer plant ASAP, watch them disregard any agreements that are in writing, and sentence yourself and your children to never ending school levies, traffic tie ups, and developers giveaways that you will pay for one way or another.