Ephrata attorney defends changes

EPHRATA - Attorney Katherine Kenison told the Ephrata City Council the proposed amendment to the city's sewer ordinance is not unique.

The discussion of a proposed amendment to a city ordinance happened during a recent city council meeting. Kenison spoke after two residents with septic tanks questioned proposed requirements, making them to pay $29 a month for the city sewer, and connect when the sewer line came within 200 feet of their property line.

"In Grant County, to my knowledge, in the cities I'm familiar with, all of them have a requirement similar to the one that Ephrata has. They're all combined utility systems. They all have a mandatory connection requirement and, except for some minor variations, in the distance from existing city sewer systems, they're pretty much all the same," she said.

Kenison isn't aware of any court case invalidating the requirements, she said. 

Mayor Chris Jacobson asked if the city has ever annexed anyone's property against their will, saying it's upon their request. 

Kenison agreed people need to request to be annexed.

In a response to a question by Jacobson, Kenison said the city is required to have a sewer system by the state.

"We are the designated utility provider," she said. "We are the provider for the water and the sewer. There are no other municipal-type entities that can provide the same level of service that we can."

She continued, saying septic systems do exist in the county, but aren't designed to serve a large population.

"I recognize for those of you who are here in this situation where you have a home with a septic, that my opinion is not a politically popular opinion," Kenison said. "My interest is in what legal advice I can provide the city that guides them to the best decision that they can make for their citizens as a whole."

Kenison pointed out state law requires the city to provide municipal services, including sewer services, to people within the urban growth area (UGA). The city has to annex land within the UGA.

"The intention from the Legislature is that municipal services will be extended," she said. "In fact, you can't even include property in our UGA that we cannot show that we can provide municipal services to. We have to have the money and the pipes and pumps to get services out there."

If people in the UGA don't want city services, the city needs to remove them from the area, Kenison said. The city can't afford to have people in its allotted area during the next 20 years, which aren't going to benefit the city.

"I'm sorry, but municipal services does not extend to individual wells and septic systems," she said. "We have a combined utility system. Everybody in the City of Ephrata has to pay to support that as a shared infrastructure. It benefits everyone who lives here."

Kenison defended using the word "subsidize," saying if a community is sharing an infrastructure system and they benefit from all of the municipal services and people aren't paying into the system, they are being subsidized.

"We have people who have been annexed in the past or who have built in the past that are beyond the 200-foot (requirement,)" she said. "This has never been a secret. The city did not attempt to hide from them the fact that at some point when municipal services became available they would be expected to connect."

The 200-foot distance was not arbitrary, Kenison said, calling it a reasonable distance from the property to dig a trench.

"It is then financially viable to require a connection," she said. "It wasn't like we were trying to pick a number out of thin air. I don't think you'll see any ordinance that has less than 200 feet. You will see ordinances that extend out to 300 feet, sometimes out to 500 feet."

Kenison continued, saying people wanting all the services provided by the city, but not wanting to pay for them bothers her. The city won't grow without increasing its sewer system, and the only way to increase it is for everyone to participate in the system.

"What then are you going to do, if and when, you have an opportunity to annex additional territory?" she asked. "They're going to come with septic tanks ... Are you going to give them a free hall pass for forever? If you do, then your infrastructure as it exists today is going to be exactly the size it will always be."