To: Honorable Mayor and Members of Town Council
From: Mark Marlowe, PE, Director of Castle Rock Water
Title
Ordinance Amending Section 13.12.050 of the Castle Rock Municipal Code Concerning Sewer Service Line Maintenance Obligations (Second Reading - Approved on First Reading on April 2, 2019 by a vote of 5-0)
Body
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Executive Summary
The purpose of this memo is to request Council approval of amendments to Section 13.12.050 of the Town’s Municipal Code on second reading (see Attachment A). The primary purpose for the amendments is to clarify the rights of the Town to make repairs or modifications to privately owned sewer services that are present in the Town’s public right-of-way at the Town’s cost. There are some other cleanup changes to the code proposed including clarifying Town rights and requirements for access to water service lines and water meters for repair, replacement, or inspection.
The Town owns and is responsible for the operation, maintenance, replacement, and rehabilitation of sewer mains throughout the Town of Castle Rock. Private customers (property owners) are responsible for the operation, maintenance, replacement and rehabilitation of private sewer services which are defined as running from the point of connection to the sewer mains (“the sewer wye in the street”) to the property, building or point of service. The Town has the authority to require private customers (property owners) to do maintenance on private sewer services if any deficiency is detected by any means.
When the Town replaces sewer mains as part of our capital replacement and rehabilitation program, the age and condition of the private sewer services often are such that replacement will be required soon. It is usually desirable to replace the private sewer service line within the public right-of-way at the same time that the sewer mains are being replaced. There can be many reasons that this is advantageous for the Town including:
1. Replacing private sewer services in the public right-of-way at the same time that the sewer main is replaced is less expensive by an order of magnitude than replacing these services individually at other times or at the time of failure providing excellent economies of scale and a real benefit to our customers.
2. Typically, when we replace sewer mains, we are coordinating with public works to do the replacements at the same time that the road is being replaced or rehabilitated. Replacing private sewer services in the public right-of-way at the same time that the sewer main is replaced avoids road cuts by private customers later providing for a much better long-term roadway asset. Roads with many individual road cuts provide a lower level of service and degrade more quickly increasing the life-cycle costs of the roads.
3. When the sewer main is in need of replacement, typically the private service lines in the public right-of-way will also be in need of replacement. These services may have breaks and leaks which do not impact the customer but can be a significant source of inflow and infiltration which costs the Town for treatment and pumping of additional water that would not normally be in the system. Infiltration and inflow to Castle Rock’s sewer system is estimated at a rough order of magnitude to be on average 67 million gallons per year, and could increase if we do not maintain the sewer mains and the sewer services. The rough order of magnitude cost for this inflow and infiltration is estimated to be as much as $440,000 per year.
Protection of the roads and avoidance of excess inflow and infiltration can save the Town costs in the end. Council approved the Gordon Drive project on March 5, 2019, which proposes to replace all of the private sewer services in the public right-of-way as part of the project for the reasons identified in this memorandum. The code amendments will make Code consistent with the approach that Castle Rock Water is taking on the Gordon Drive project.
History of Past Town Council, Boards & Commissions, or Other Discussions
On March 27, 2019, the Castle Rock Water Commission unanimously recommended Council approval of the Ordinance as presented.
Discussion
It is important to remember that sewer services have been considered private infrastructure since the inception of the sewer system in Castle Rock. As such, Castle Rock Water has not and is not collecting rates and fees to maintain, repair and replace these services. The suggested language for the code amendment provides for a good balance between the responsibilities of the property owner and the Town for operation, maintenance, replacement and rehabilitation of the sewer system as a whole. It allows the Town to make repairs and replacements to the sewer service in the public right-of-way where it will provide financial benefits to both the customer (property owner) and the Town. The proposed approach is consistent with the approach that Aurora Water and the City of Aurora use for their sewer system. Aurora is similar to Castle Rock in how sewer is collected and treated and their municipal code provides a good model for Castle Rock.
Budget Impact
The budget impact of the proposed code change is expected to be minimal when the life cycle costs of our streets, sewer mains, and wastewater treatment and pumping systems are considered.
Staff Recommendation
Staff recommends approval of the ordinance as presented.
Proposed Motion
“I move to approve the Ordinance as introduced by title.”
Attachments
Attachment A: Ordinance (Second Reading)