S-4538.1  _______________________________________________

                    SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 5336

          _______________________________________________

State of Washington      56th Legislature     2000 Regular Session

By Senate Committee on State & Local Government (originally sponsored by Senators Kline, Kohl‑Welles, McDonald, Fraser and McAuliffe)

Read first time 02/04/2000.

Regulating capacity charges for sewage facilities by metropolitan municipal corporations.

    AN ACT Relating to sewer facility capacity charges; and amending RCW 35.58.570.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

    Sec. 1.  RCW 35.58.570 and 1996 c 230 s 1602 are each amended to read as follows:

    (1) A metropolitan municipal corporation that is engaged in the transmission, treatment, and disposal of sewage may impose a capacity charge on users of the metropolitan municipal corporation's sewage facilities when the user connects, reconnects, or establishes a new service to sewer facilities of a city, county, or special purpose district that discharges into the metropolitan municipal corporation's sewage facilities.  ((The capacity charge shall be approved by the council of the metropolitan municipal corporation and reviewed and reapproved annually.

    (2))) The capacity charge shall be based upon the cost of the sewage facilities' excess capacity that is necessary to provide sewerage treatment for new users to the system.  ((The capacity charge, which may be collected over a period of fifteen years, shall not exceed:

    (a) Seven dollars per month per residential customer equivalent for connections and reconnections occurring prior to January 1, 1996; and

    (b) Ten dollars and fifty cents per month per residential customer equivalent for connections and reconnections occurring after January 1, 1996, and prior to January 1, 2001.

    For connections and reconnections occurring after January 1, 2001, the capacity charge shall not exceed fifty percent of the basic sewer rate per residential customer equivalent established by the metropolitan municipal corporation at the time of the connection or reconnection.

    (3) The capacity charge for a building other than a single-family residence shall be based on the projected number of residential customer equivalents to be represented by the building, considering its intended use.

    (4))) (2) The capacity charge is a monthly charge reviewed and approved annually by the metropolitan council in order that such property owners shall bear their equitable share of the cost of such system.  The equitable share may include interest charges applied from the date of construction of the sewage facilities until the connection, or for a period not to exceed ten years, at a rate commensurate with the rate of interest applicable to the metropolitan municipal corporation at the time of construction or major rehabilitation of the sewage facilities, or at the time of installation of the sewer lines to which the property owner is seeking to connect but not to exceed ten percent per year:  PROVIDED, That the aggregate amount of interest shall not exceed the equitable share of the cost of the sewage facilities allocated to such property owners.  Capacity charges collected shall be considered revenue of the sewage facilities.

(3) The metropolitan council ((of the metropolitan municipal corporation)) shall enforce the collection of the capacity charge in the same manner provided for the collection, enforcement, and payment of rates and charges for water-sewer districts provided in RCW 57.08.081.  At least thirty days before commencement of an action to foreclose a lien for a capacity charge, the metropolitan municipal corporation shall send written notice of delinquency in payment of the capacity charge to any first mortgage or deed of trust holder of record at the address of record.

    (((5) As used in this section, "sewage facilities" means capital projects identified since January 1, 1982, to July 23, 1989, in the metropolitan municipal corporation's comprehensive water pollution abatement plan.  "Residential customer equivalent" shall have the same meaning used by the metropolitan municipal corporation in determining rates and charges at the time the capacity charge is imposed.))

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