Neither side budges in water tug of war

By Erica Ryberg

The South County Spotlight, Jan 27, 2010

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The city of St. Helens and the McNulty People’s Utility District remain deadlocked in a battle over who will serve a potentially dense customer base that falls both within the city’s urban growth boundary and also within the PUD’s service boundary.

In the latest volley, the PUD applied last month with the Oregon Public Utility Commission in order to seek the exclusive right to serve those within its service boundaries.

St. Helens City Administrator Chad Olsen said that the PUD’s application circumvents an analysis of each utility’s ability to serve its customers within urban growth boundaries under the terms of Oregon Revised Statute 195, which defines urban service agreements. And so, in response, the city has requested a hearing to air its objections to the PUD’s application. The hearing is set for Feb. 15.

The boundary overlap mostly occurs east of Highway 30 on the south side of St. Helens.

The latest developments come on the heels of a declaration on the part of the PUD last fall (see Oct. 29 Spotlight issue, “Water scuffle between St. Helens, McNulty escalates”) to exclusively serve all customers within its boundaries, to which the St. Helens City Council responded by declaring that all developments that are annexed into the city would have to agree to be served by St. Helens water.

“Part of living within a urban area is that you agree to a set of conditions that don’t apply when you’re living in the county,” said Olsen who also added that anyone outside of city limits who wanted city water would have to sign a pre-annexation agreement to get it.

What the city wants, Olsen said, is for anyone who is hooked up to the city’s sewer services to also hook up to, and purchase, city water.

But McNulty’s General Manager Andy Tinkess said that would require duplicate infrastructure.

The two sides did come together shortly after the council’s declaration, ostensibly to hammer out an agreement at a meeting mediated by the county’s chief planner, Glen Higgins. When the St. Helens officials held fast to their stated intention to exclusively serve all customers in developments annexed into the city, the two sides were unable to come to an agreement about service territories. Higgins, who had come in from vacation to attend the meeting, said he was at a loss for words.

It’s Tinkess’ hope that by working through the commission, the struggles can finally be put to rest.