"The Guiding LOTT" -- A South Sound Soap Operaby Paul Pickett Let's begin with a synopsis of past episodes. Oly, Lacey, Tum, and TC have been living in sin for years. They finally have decided to get married and make LOTT an honest treatment plant. Meanwhile LOTT is great with child and is planning a baby treatment plant that Lacey gets to take care of. Now all this time Phillip M. Miller, a close intimate of Tum who has put a lot of money into the LOTT household, decides he doesn't love the others anymore and wants a divorce. "Buy me out," he cries, "or you'll never see your union blue collar jobs again!" In a recent episode there were new developments. One of LOTT's children confronts LOTT: "You're too fat -- you need to get on a diet!" Meanwhile TC is having a severe multiple personality disorder: "The divorce proceedings should be kept a secret. No, we should let the whole world know. Forget the marriage, I know a nice little PUD who will marry LOTT. No, let's get on with our marriage." OK, if you've been following the LOTT story in the paper, then hopefully this sounds familiar, and maybe even a little amusing. If you're confused, then here's the translation. The LOTT wastewater treatment plant is operated by a partnership consisting of Thurston County and its three largest cities. When a court decision found Seattle's METRO to be illegal, the partners realized they had a problem. So over the last few years they have been creating a nonprofit corporation to operate LOTT. Meanwhile, LOTT is nearing its full capacity and will need to be expanded to handle growth. Critics of sprawl and run-away growth like the Carnegie Group would like LOTT's capacity to stay limited to help slow down development. Developers and the home construction industry would like LOTT to have lots of capacity so they can keep on building homes that hook up to the sewer. Local governments seem to be following a middle road. To avoid bottlenecks to growth, LOTT is moving ahead to build satellite treatment plants (the first one is planned for Lacey) and use land application of wastewater for disposal. At the same time they say they are trying to follow Growth Management Act planning, by putting sewers where growth is desired rather than having growth follow an expanding sewer network. But LOTT has some other problems. LOTT discharges to Budd Inlet, which studies have shown is sensitive to pollution, especially the nutrient nitrogen. LOTT produces nitrogen in abundance, and has spent a lot of money putting in advanced treatment to remove nitrogen. A Total Maximum Daily Load for nitrogen in Budd Inlet is probably just around the corner, with allocations that will be enforced under federal law. Recently a group of citizens have been complaining about LOTT sewer rates. Compared to rates in cities of a similar size, LOTT's are much higher. Mike Sharar of LOTT concedes that LOTT's rates are high -- in the top third in western Washington. But Sharar explains there are many reasons for the rates being high. As described above, LOTT has invested heavily in its expansion planning and in nitrogen removal. Because of the complexity of LOTT's treatment, extra staff are required. Also, because of its downtown setting, LOTT spends extra money to maintain its appearance and control odors. So it appears that there are good reasons for LOTT's rates. One area of debate has been whether LOTT's rates should subsidize development. Each ratepayer currently provides over $2.00 per month to subsidize treatment of the Miller Brewery's wastewater. LOTT splits its income between hook-up fees and sewer rates. Right now hook-up fees are fairly high, and are intended to capture most of the costs of new development, but it's not clear whether ratepayers are still subsidizing growth. And of course, if hook-up fees were lowered, sewer rates would be even higher. This brings us to a new twist: a proposal that the Thurston Public Utilities District takes over LOTT. This idea was reported in the News Tribune a few weeks ago, and one county commissioner was quoted as supporting the idea. The logic seems to be that the PUD could operate LOTT more cheaply and without the messy coordination between governments. Some PUD's do operate sewer utilities, but this is probably not a great idea here in our county for several reasons. The cities have worked hard at their alliance, and they do not seem eager to hand over control. Therefore, the PUD taking over LOTT would be a hostile take-over, which would be very disruptive and counter to good government. The PUD would have to come up with the funds to buy the facility from Olympia. Also, the PUD controlling LOTT forces a choice between two alternatives, neither very attractive. Either the PUD would have to join in with local planning efforts, which would mean that five local governments would now have to coordinate planning, instead of four (which is hard enough!). Or the PUD would not participate in planning, which means that wastewater management would now be outside growth management efforts. In other Puget Sound communities, sewer districts outside the planning process have been engines for run-away sprawl. The story is not complete without discussing Miller Brewing and their "divorce" from LOTT. In 1982 the Brewery contracted and began making payments for part of the LOTT plant's capacity, and by this investment can lay claim to an ownership share. A few months back the new owner Miller, a subsidiary of Phillip Morris, announced that they had plans to build their own treatment plant for a discharge to the Deschutes River, and they wanted LOTT to buy back the capacity owned by the Brewery. Now to someone familiar with environmental issues in Olympia, the original proposal did not pass the straight face test. Capitol Lake and the Deschutes have numerous environmental problems, one of which is an excess of phosphorus. In fact, the river is listed on Ecology's "303d list" of impaired water quality for this nutrient. In addition, any increase in nitrogen to Budd Inlet through the river would be subject to allocations for a potential TMDL. As it turned out, Ecology analyzed the proposed discharge and found that it would double the phosphorus in Capitol Lake. Ecology has indicated that they think land application of treated wastewater is the best idea. By the way, LOTT has made it clear to Miller that if they pull out of the treatment plant, they will not get any of LOTT's nitrogen allocation in a Budd Inlet TMDL. It may be difficult for Miller to obtain its own nitrogen allocation for a Deschutes River discharge. Negotiations between Miller and LOTT have been going on for quite some time now. The implications of a buy-out are multitude. Miller has threatened to close the plant if they are not bought out. Is this extortion or just a business fact of life? The development community is probably eager to see LOTT get additional capacity. And what is the true value of the capacity that Miller owns? How much does Miller owe LOTT for the upgrades for nitrogen removal? Who pays for the buy-out: rate payers or new hook-ups? There's even a rumor circulating that Miller wants to sell its capacity, shut down the plant, sell the water rights and the property, and brew its beer in some location with fewer environmental controls and cheaper labor. The investments made by Miller in the Tumwater plant suggest that this is unlikely. Nonetheless, for anyone who has seen the movie "Roger and Me" or read about the behavior of multi-national corporations, this scenario is not outside the realm of possibility. It's difficult to know how the negotiations are progressing, because they are being conducted in secret. There may be some justifications for this, but it is unclear how our community will be able to take part in a decision that is so important to us. It requires a lot of trust in our elected officials. Open process is an integral part of democracy, and the public needs to know how it will be able to participate in the negotiations. Some final observations on "The Guiding LOTT" soap opera. Miller began their negotiations with LOTT in a rather heavy-handed fashion. They seemed to be making ultimatums without really understanding local conditions. It would be nice to see more flexibility from Miller. Why do they need to sell their capacity? Why not keep it, and land apply the wastewater from only their increased flow? Why not sell their capacity in small portions and scale up their land application slowly? Our community needs solutions that create sustainable, living-wage jobs that are in accord with our local environment. We invite Miller to look at more than just its corporate bottom line, but to be a full participant in our community. And the bottom line for our local environment? We need to prevent sprawl, and for that we need LOTT to be controlled by environmentally sound growth management planning. Paul Pickett is a Green Pages staff writer.
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