Moving Bend homes from septic to sewer will cost – who?

There are about 2,800 homes in Bend that are not hooked up to the city sewer line and are instead reliant on septic systems.

The Bend Septic to Sewer Project is aimed at getting those homes linked up with the city’s sewer lines. The problem is, that takes a big chunk of money, and the city wants the homeowners to pay a portion of it.

Some people in the affected neighborhoods say they’d be fine paying to hook their homes up to the sewer line, but not for the construction of the connecting lines on city streets.

“We would look forward to be able to connect to the city’s sewer service,” Paul Quagliata said Tuesday. “We just don’t feel it’s our responsibility to pay to have that put in.”

“I don’t see any reason why the homeowners should be expected to pay for city-owned sewer pipes,” Irene Bernstein said.

Susana Jubler, manager of the Septic to Sewer project, said she’s trying not to raise rates on everyone in Bend in order to pay for it, so the idea of splitting the costs down the middle was recently introduced.

“We don’t want to raise too much to cover, so I think that 50-50 split would be within our existing rate increases, our planned ones, so we wouldn’t have to raise rates anymore,” Jubler said.
“That’s why we landed on 50-50.“

City Councilor Justin Livingston, who’ll help make the decision about who pays for what part of the project, mentioned the “300-foot rule,” which requires anyone within 300 feet of a sewer line to hook up to it if their septic system malfunctions, as a reason for the project.

“If you’re at 299 feet, you’re talking well over $100,000 to connect to the sewer, and then your neighbors get the benefit if they’re between you and where the sewer line is,” Livingston said. “So the reason for the committee and for this whole program was to actually bring more equity.”

Discussions are ongoing, and next month, there’ll be a council work session about the issues.

For more information: https://www.bendoregon.gov/government/se-bend-septic-to-sewer-advisory-committee