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November 1, 2011 Portlandbiz

Businesses target of city outreach of its $170M sewer project

The city of Portland, with help from a local environmental group, is reaching out to businesses this week to learn how to better communicate with them about its multi-year, multi-million dollar sewer and stormwater infrastructure overhaul.

Curtis Bohlen, director of the Casco Bay Estuary Partnership, says the purpose of the outreach is to have the most constructive and least contentious community discussion around the subject. "We want to make sure the conversation is as productive as possible," he says. "This is one that could easily get sidetracked into rhetoric, with people making political points, rather than looking for solutions. The challenge here is there are real expenses here, significant expenses, and how do you find a solution to pay for that as fairly as possible."

The Casco Bay Estuary Partnership is funding the ongoing outreach with a $47,000 grant that has been used to hire local marketing group 19 Oaks and engineering firm Woodard & Curran. They've reached out to a range of Portland businesses, nonprofits and residents, according to Zachary Henderson, a project scientist at Woodard & Curran.

Henderson says this week they will hold four sessions, with a target of 10 business people in each. "We're trying to help the city and Casco Bay Estuary learn how to talk about these complex issues with the public," he says. "We're constantly struggling with the question, ‘Are we talking about anything the public understands?'"

In the early 1990s, the city received a consent decree to reduce the pollution from its sewage system. During heavy rains, some of the city's combined sewage, which includes stormwater, residential sewage and industrial waste, flows into Portland's ponds, rivers and coastal waters untreated, carrying pathogens and impacting the health of Casco Bay. To prevent this, the city has been building separate pipes for stormwater runoff and for the waste produced by households and industries. "You're talking about replumbing an entire city," Bohlen says.

In 2008, the city took on a $61 million bond to do phase two of the project, which is expected to reduce the amount of sewage released into Portland's water systems by as much as 88% by 2013. It is now in year four of that six-year plan, with planned 3% annual increases in sewer rates to pay off the six-year bond.

In June, the city decided to hasten the sewer system cleanup, and is planning a 15-year, $170 million project that will begin in 2013. This third phase will more pointedly address stormwater pollution. Bolhen explains, "When the consent decree was created, everyone assumed the answer was separating the pipes, but what's happened since then is that people realized stormwater isn't so clean either." Now, instead of separating the city's remaining pipes, the plan is to build underground reservoirs that can collect the overflow, and construct a smaller, back-up wastewater plant that can be used during heavy rains, according to Bohlen.

The big question is how to pay for this "big whack," as Bohlen says. The city has convened a group of 16 stakeholders called the Sustainable Storm Water Funding Task Force to come up with a fair funding scheme. Members include a Mercy Hospital representative; property managers Todd Dominski, Peter Gellerson and Vin Veroneau; Bill Bennett of Oakhurst Dairy; two citizens at large; and public officials. Bohlen also sits on this task force. He says there are three possible streams of money that could pay for the project, including general tax revenue, existing sewer fees or a stormwater fee.

If the city uses sewer fees to pay for the work, those with the biggest water usage will pay the largest bills, such as breweries and food processors. If the funding came from the general tax fund, nonprofits would chip in. And if the city shifts the cost to a stormwater fee, those who own the most impervious surfaces -- e.g. paved parking lots, streets and rooftops -- would have larger bills. In a stormwater fee scenario, "low-density development would not benefit," says Ian Houseal, Portland's sustainability coordinator, "but high-density development would." The task force is also looking into possible credits, too, if property owners use, for example, pervious pavement, water cleaners or drainage swales, Houseal says.

Bohlen says, "My guess is you come up with some hybrid, because the cost comes from both sides."

The task force will give its report with funding recommendations to the city council by January.

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