HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                      Olympia, Washington

Bill Analysis      Bill No. HB 1212

Corections re. combining water/sewer dists           Public Hrg:  2/12/97

Brief Title

Reps. D. Schmidt/Scott                                    Staff Contact: S. Lundin

Sponsor                                    Comm. on Govt. Admin.

                                           Phone: 786-7127

BACKGROUND:

Water districts are units of local government, initially authorized to be created in 1913, that may provide potable water facilities, sanitary sewers, drainage facilities, and street lighting.  Sewer districts are units of local government, initially authorized to be created in 1941, that may provide sanitary sewers, drainage facilities, and potable water facilities.  Sewer district laws are almost identical with water district laws.

Legislation was enacted in 1996 consolidating water district laws and sewer district laws and making a number of technical changes to these laws.  Among other changes, the term Asewer system,@ which had been defined to include both sanitary sewers and drainage systems, was altered to only apply to sanitary sewer systems and separate provisions were added for drainage systems.   These units of local government were renamed as water-sewer districts.  This legislation had a delayed effective date until July 1, 1997.

SUMMARY:

A variety of changes are made relating to the consolidation of water district laws with sewer district laws.

Provisions relating to the process of creating a new water-sewer district are clarified and the precise wording of the ballot propositions is deleted.

The distinction between sanitary sewer systems and drainage systems, that was initiated in the 1996 legislation consolidating sewer district and water district statutes, is continued and various laws are amended to make this distinction.

It is clarified that a purchase of materials, supplies, or equipment with a value of from $10,000 to less than $50,000 is made using a general vendor list process provided for a number of local governments.

                                                     Continued

HB 1212 - Page 2

Rather than describing the super-majority vote requirement in the constitution to authorized debt and excess levies to retire the debt, the constitutional provision is cited.

References to either Awater districts@ or Asewer districts@ are altered to Awater-sewer districts.@

FISCAL NOTE:  Not requested.

EFFECTIVE DATE: This bill contains an emergency clause and takes effect on July 1, 1997.