Forest Service disputes sewer bill

Last updated 2/6/2001 at Noon

The Forest Service is questioning a $250,669.26 charge to hook the Sisters Ranger District compound to the city's sewer system.

The bill was based on calculations made in October 1999, when the City of Sisters and the U.S. Forest Service were negotiating a trade of forest land (for the treatment facility) for sewer services at the compound. Those calculations were used in crafting federal legislation for a transfer of federal land to the city.

The city opted instead to purchase the land outright for $442,000.

According to Forest Service representative Mike Hernandez, the calculations used in the scrapped exchange agreement are no longer valid.

"We're not using that agreement in the process we're using now," said Hernandez. "We came up with the figures (for the exchange agreement) as best we could at the time and submitted them. We did not have time to look into data to make sure they were accurate."

The city bill is based on water usage of 35.29 EDU (equivalent dwelling units). The Forest Service offered figures based on city water records that peg their actual usage at 12.85 EDU.

Sewer system engineer Dick Nored believes the Forest Service should pay based on what was agreed to.

"The city has paid full market for the (treatment facility) land," Nored told Hernandez in a Friday, February 2 meeting. "Now (you) want to renegotiate the fees ... that everyone agreed to."

Hernandez said that the Forest Service needs to justify whatever cost is determined and "we need to make sure that whatever occurs is fair and equitable."

The Forest Service representative noted that "we have some issues in trying to find the dollars for this hook-up."

The Forest Service also questions city charges for running main lines across Forest Service property. Nored argues that the lines, especially one running to the East Portal Kiosk restrooms, are a direct benefit to the Forest Service, justifying the 50 percent charge for their construction.

Civil engineer Lisa Anheluk said the city never made that claim before. Anheluk said the location of the mains were presented as the best design location for the system as a whole, not as a benefit to the Forest Service for which the agency must pay.

Anheluk also questioned whether the Forest Service is being treated differently from other users in the city.

She noted that the city calculated charges for hook-ups to the Forest Service administration building based on the number of people there during summer peak times.

Other commercial users' charges are calculated based on average EDU usage from December through March.

The difference is significant. The city's calculation for the administration building, originally accepted by the Forest Service, is 11.2 EDU. The actual usage for the building is 1.0 EDU.

There is no hook up subsidy for residences on the district compound, but there is for other residences in the city.

The Sisters Ranger District compound is the only location where the city is laying main lines and charging the property owner. Several subdivisions have been required to lay their own mains for connection to the city system, paying their full cost.

"It wasn't at the Forest Service request that the main line went across our property," Anheluk noted.

The Forest Service is also required, at its own expense, to lay the pipe to tie the buildings in the compound together in the system.

Nored acknowledged that the Sisters Ranger District Compound poses a unique situation, but he said the agency has indeed been treated fairly and equitably.

"Let's be honest," he said. "You're trying to change the ballgame when the pipe's already in the ground."

Nored said the city would have to look at the entire situation and determine whether to allow the compound to hook up to the system at all.

"We're going to reopen the whole ball game," he said.

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Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.