Group sues Wasilla over unruly sewer

WASILLA -- A historical society is taking the city of Wasilla to small claims court over what society members claim is an unwillingness of the city to cover costs caused by an unruly septic system.

A septic system between the historic Herning Building and the city of Wasilla's sewer system backed up twice during a period of five days in January 2001. The sewage was cleaned up more than a year ago from the basement below Mead's Coffeehouse, but the problem is landing the city in small claims court today.

The Wasilla-Knik-Willow Creek Historical Society wants the city to pay nearly $5,000 to cover cleaning and pumping costs that go back to October 1999.

Historical society president LeRoi Heaven declined to comment for this story, but according to documents filed in Palmer District Court he has a problem with the timing of the city-provided pumping service and disagrees with the city over where and why the pressurized sewer line was clogged. Two cleaning bills, a pumping bill and a plumber's bill are among the expenses Heaven wants the city to pay.

The city filed a counterclaim for $762 in unpaid utilities.

Heaven approached the city council last summer for relief. Then-council member Colleen Cottle proposed a $1,000 grant to the historical society to be taken from the council's contingency fund.

The council contingency fund that year was budgeted at $25,000. The council used $10,790 of that by the end of Wasilla's fiscal year, which ended July first.

After listening to testimony from Heaven and Public Works Director Don Shiesl, Cottle's motion failed 3 to 2.

Shiesl told the council that coffee in the waste water was clogging the system. He also said the historical society had received the regular pumping service that the city provides commercial customers.

Wasilla's sewer system is unusual. It relies on septic tanks to hold solids, and pumps to move liquid sewage from the top of the tank into the sewer lines. Eventually, the solids tank needs to be pumped out as well, and solids go to the treatment plant by truck. A more common sewer system would use larger pipes, gravity to move the sewage and strategically placed lift stations that pump sewage up in order to take advantage of gravity again.

Wasilla's system was built with federal grant money for innovative technology in the 1980s. This was long before the city sales tax, but the town was growing rapidly among hills, swamps and lakes and something needed to be done.

"It's an unusual system, it's a forced main system -- I don't know if there are more than half a dozen of these in the country in place in cities," Shiesl said this week. "They wanted a sewer system and they couldn't afford a conventional system, so they built this, knowing that maintenance would be more expensive down the road. I can't fault them for that."

Shiesl said current improvements to the system are going well, and Wasilla has a sewer master plan that maps out where to go next. Some neighborhoods -- such as Bridgestone Subdivision -- have a traditional gravity-feed system, which leads to a community solids tank between the houses and to the pressurized main line. With a single home there is one tank, a pump vault and the pressurized line. A typical restaurant hook-up has a grease trap, the solids tank and a pump vault before the pressurized sewer line.

Shiesl said he didn't know the exact details of the set-up at the Herning Building because the city doesn't have as-built drawings of the system as installed.

"As I understand it, the tank wasn't installed by the city -- that was before my time," Shiesl said. "We just don't have any information because we haven't seen any as-builts."

Shiesl said the property owner was responsible for the part of the system that is between the building and the pump vault. He told the council last summer that public-works crews found coffee grounds had clogged the system at the Herning Building.

"Anyone that understands sewer systems knows that with coffee grounds, they compact like concrete in the system," Shiesl told the

council.

He also explained to the council that the as-built surveys weren't available. Last week he said he hoped drawings of the system might come out of the trial.

"If it was improperly installed, that could make a very big difference," Shiesl said. "We don't know, because we didn't oversee the installation."

Council member Noel Lowe was among those who voted against the historical society grant last summer. Lowe said if coffee was the problem, the historical society ought to be asking their tenant -- Mead's Coffeehouse -- for cash and not the city.

"I opposed [the grant] because the best information we had at the time was that the problem was caused by the tenant," Lowe said. "I didn't believe that the taxpayers of Wasilla should bare the burden for this business."

Council member Howard O'Neil voted with Cottle for the grant. He told the Frontiersman last week that he didn't think the evidence was clear, but sided with the historical society.

"I was concerned about the city's responsibility and I

wasn't really sure whether the city was liable or not," O'Neil said.

O'Neil also said he might have been less sympathetic if the historical society wasn't involved.

Both O'Neil and Lowe said the city is making good progress on the overall plan. Lowe called the sewer system a "critical piece of infrastructure" and said the city was lobbying for state and federal funds for what could be $35 million in improvements during the next 15 years.

"We recognize that we don't have the $35 million today," Lowe said. " … I'm pretty proud of the forward-looking approach of the administration."

As for the piece of infrastructure at 405 E. Herning Ave., Palmer District Court Judge Natalie Finn will be hearing about it in her small claims court at 9:30 a.m. today.