Editorial: Development is nice, but health is top priority

There are loopholes, and then there are circumnavigations of law. Strange how they basically mean the same thing, whether they are intentionally created or not. In the case of the de facto building moratorium within the City of Gig Harbor, the way around the issue is the latter.

The City Council is considering an ordinance that would effectively lift the new-construction moratorium because of the Waste Water Treatment Plant’s capacity status. Construction has been at a halt since last year because of the city’s inability to add new structures to its sewer line. The loophole — or circumnavigation, if you will — would be to allow temporary underground holding tanks. A decision is expected next month.

On the surface, it’s difficult to argue with the benefits: Sewer certificates could be issued by the end of the year, meaning new construction wouldn’t have to wait until 2010, when Phase I of the $15 million Waste Water Treatment Plant expansion is expected to be complete. If everything remained status quo, those permits wouldn’t be issued until the treatment plant could handle the extra load, delaying the process for an additional 18 months.

That means no brand new buildings until mid-2012 at the latest.

The storage-tank theory is even better when you consider the likelihood that they wouldn’t ever be installed. That’s because a new building doesn’t have to connect to a sewer line until it’s nearly complete — and that shouldn’t happen until the capacity at the treatment plant has expanded. It would be the city’s way of allowing development to occur without the means of being able to handle the immediate impact.

But what happens if there’s a delay in the treatment plant project? What happens if the theory busts, and those sewage tanks we’re being told won’t exist suddenly are approved by the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department? That’s when it could get messy.

Those tanks, which would be required to be disconnected within 90 days of the treatment plant expansion, would have to be pumped once every two weeks. Property owners would foot the bill — and rightly so, since the city would be bending the rules to allow them to build — for installation and any fees. And the city has gone to the trouble to draw up a $250-per-day fine if the tanks are either overdue for pumping or if they aren’t properly disconnected when the time comes.

City Administrator Rob Karlinsey is right when he says it’s the city’s fault. One architect claimed the city saw this expansion coming nearly a decade ago, so the city should indeed fix the problem. But we agree most with Mayor Chuck Hunter’s assessment: It would be opening up a can of worms.

The only way this ordinance should be approved is if safeguards are put in place to address potential health risks associated with underground sewage tanks. And the city has a good start by potentially requiring an audible alarm system at “high” and “extreme” levels.

It doesn’t matter if a single tank isn’t supposed to be installed, because if a loophole exists, there’s a good chance someone will be able to exploit it.