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SUBSTITUTE
HOUSE BILL 2528
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Passed
Legislature - 2000 Regular Session
State
of Washington 56th Legislature 2000 Regular Session
By
Read
first time 02/02/2000. Referred to Committee on .
Regulating capacity charges for sewage facilities by
metropolitan municipal corporations.
AN
ACT Relating to capacity charges for sewage facilities to enhance water
quality; 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 district that discharges into the metropolitan 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. A metropolitan municipal corporation may charge property
owners seeking to connect to the sewage facilities of the metropolitan
municipal corporation as a condition to granting the right to so connect, in
addition to the cost of such connection, such reasonable capacity charge as the
legislative body of the metropolitan municipal corporation shall determine
proper 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 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.))
Passed the House February 10, 2000.
Passed the Senate February 29, 2000.
Approved by the Governor
March 27, 2000.
Filed
in Office of Secretary of State March 27, 2000.
