3. Evergreen District Sewer LinesCity of Kalispell
Charles A. HaYball Office of City Attorney Tel 406.75&.7708
City Attorney 312 First Avenue East Fax 406.758.7771
P.O. Box 1997 charball@kalispell.com
Kalispell, MT 59903-1997
MEMORANDUM
TO: Mayor Pamela B. Kennedy
and Kalispell City Council
FROM: Charles Harball, City Attorney
Frank Garner, Interim City Manager
SUBJECT: Establishing Policy for Ownership of Sewer Lines
Connecting to Evergreen Conveyance System but
Utilizing City of Kalispell Sewer Capacity
MEETING DATE: Monday, August 23, 2004 — Workshop
BACKGROUND: Council has been in ongoing discussions regarding the issue of
development around the perimeter of the Evergreen Sewer District. Council issued
Resolutions of Intent to enter into interlocal agreements with Flathead County and
developers agreements and/or annexation district agreements with the developers
of Cottonwood Estates and Kelsey Subdivision. Based primarily on concerns
expressed and shared by all of the entities regarding the preservation of water
quality in the region, Council further indicated that the City is willing, upon certain
conditions, to allow for these developments to convey sewage through the Evergreen
Sewer District and use the capacity of the City of Kalispell rather than the
Evergreen Sewer District's allocation.
The City staff recently met with the Evergreen Sewer District staff to discuss
those issues that would be involved in an agreement between the City and
Evergreen for this sewer service. It would appear as though engineering,
maintenance and billing issues are all easily resolvable and can be presented to
Council in an agreement for its consideration. However, it is apparent that the
issue of whether the City or Evergreen will own the sewer lines outside of
Evergreen's RS1D remains a matter of contention. The Evergreen Board met on
Wednesday and determined that it must own those lines.
that:
The reasons given by the Evergreen staff for needing to own the lines are
1) In the event the City fails to annex the development, Evergreen
believes it must be in control the lines.
August 18, 2004
Page - 2
2) Evergreen wants its infiltration & inflow controls (I & I) in place to
ensure the quality of materials passing through its lines_
3) Evergreen feels that the method of gauging sewage volume by
metering water flows is inadequate for their purposes.
4) Evergreen feels it is more efficient for it to maintain the sewer lines
within the new developments than for the City to maintain them.
The City can, and will, provide an answer to each of these concerns,
which are minor in contrast to the larger issue of providing municipal sewer
to these developments so that water quality .may be protected.
RECOMMENDATION: Resolution 4928, tabled on August 16, stated that the
policy of the City in this regard is that it will approve the extension of sewer lines
out of the Evergreen Sewer RSID for sewage that passes through Evergreen's sewer
system for treatment by the City and that such sewage treatment will not be
accounted against Evergreen's contractual allocation ONLY if those sewer line
extensions are owned by the City.
FISCAL EFFECTS: The fiscal effects of this policy are complex, far-reaching and
likely substantial.
Respectfully sub 'od,
Char es Ilarbal1, City Attorney
Office of City Attorney
City of Kalispell
Lger