Smith offers sewer bill

Oregon Senator Gordon Smith introduced a bill to Congress on Thursday, February 11, that would convey 240 acres of U.S. Forest Service land to the City of Sisters for wastewater treatment and disposal.

Passage of the legislation, co-sponsored by Senator Ron Wyden, would transfer ownership of the land known as "Section 9" to the City of Sisters at no cost to the city, other than that of preparing an environmental assessment of the site.

"The people in Sisters should not have to live every day concerned about a possible outbreak of infectious diseases from failed and leaking septic systems," Smith said in a prepared statement. "Obviously, this is a situation that cannot continue."

Smith also cited potential groundwater and surface water contamination in expressing urgency for the bill's passage.

At least one Sisters business owner took issue with the senator's characterization of the local health risk.

"We must be careful not to overstate the situation," said Nikki Heiden, owner of Ear Expressions. "By making it sound like we're swimming in sewer water, this can backfire on our image as a tourist destination."

Smith's Central Oregon field representative Susan Fitch said that graphic images of failed septic systems in Sisters presented by city officials sparked the senator's action.

"We saw photos from several different sites showing raw sewage coming up above ground," Fitch explained. "Anyone who walked by could have been exposed."

In addition to giving 240 acres of National Forest land to the City of Sisters, the bill would direct the Secretary of Agriculture to sell at least six acres of the 77-acre Sisters Ranger District administrative site at the corner of Pine Street and Highway 20 in Sisters.

Most of the proceeds from the sale would be dedicated to "improving the long-term condition of the watershed of Squaw Creek," with up to 25 percent of the monies available for "administrative improvements at the Sisters Ranger District," the legislation states.

Smith included the six-acre land sale to balance the Forest Service's potential benefit from a new sewer system, according to Fitch.

"When the sewer system is in place, the value of land in the urban growth boundary (UGB) will appreciate," explained Fitch. "The Forest Service owns 20 per cent of the land in the Sisters UGB.

"We wanted the supposed increase in the appraised value of their land put back into stream restoration in the Deschutes Basin," Fitch said.

The legislation does not identify any specific land at the administrative site to be included in the sale.

Sisters Mayor Steve Wilson was pleased with the breadth of the proposed legislation, despite the risk posed by the inclusion of the six-acre land sale.

"The bill shows a real strong effort to address a number of needs at the same time," Wilson said. "Introducing the issue of watershed health may compromise the strength of the bill, but we thought it was worth pursuing because Squaw Creek is that much of a priority."

Fitch expressed confidence in the bill's entire package.

"If Senator Smith thought (the six acres) would be a problem, he would not have included it," she said. "The senator saw a real unique opportunity to put some resources back into conservation efforts and he wanted to pursue that."

The legislation would mandate that the city conduct a public process to determine the preferred method of effluent dispersal on Section 9.

Wilson said the Sisters community would have a voice the system's design.

"We sent a letter to (the senators') staff outlining the public process we are committed to," he said. "Everyone will have a say on what Section 9 will look like."

Earlier this month, both Smith and Wyden urged the Forest Service to "act immediately to process and issue a special use permit allowing construction of this (sewer) facility on National Forest land."

In a February 1 letter to Regional Forester Bob Williams, the senators requested that the permit be issued while legislation is pending, helping the city "take advantage of substantial savings that are available only if the project is started within the next few months."