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Junction City council extends sanitary sewer connection moratorium for six months
Summary
The council unanimously approved a six-month extension of the moratorium on new sanitary sewer connections so the city can continue meeting milestones in a Department of Environmental Quality mutual agreement and order (MAO). Staff reported no public testimony at the hearing.
Junction City’s City Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to extend by six months the moratorium that limits new connections to the city’s sanitary sewer system while the city complies with a Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) mutual agreement and order (MAO).
City Attorney Carrie Conner told the council the moratorium, first adopted Oct. 22, 2024, responds to DEQ’s MAO entered Dec. 2, 2024, which allocates a limited number of sewer connections and ties additional connections to a sequence of milestones the city must complete. Conner said the current moratorium expires June 10, 2025, and staff recommended a statutorily allowed six-month extension so the city can continue to deny connection requests while the milestones are not yet complete.
Conner said the MAO now allows roughly 20 available connections and that the city has made progress on several MAO action items, including recycled-water plan elements and repairs, but “the progress hasn’t resolved the city’s sewer system capacity issues.” She also reminded the council that extensions may be appealed to the Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) and that the record supporting the initial moratorium and the MAO will be part of any appeal.
Public testimony was solicited at the opening of the public hearing; no one spoke either in person or online, and the council closed the hearing before deliberating. A motion to adopt the extension was moved and seconded; the roll-call vote recorded all councilors in favor. Councilor Hancock’s vote was later confirmed by phone during the meeting record.
City staff and contractors continue work the council heard about at the hearing: smoke testing, CCTV inspections, and other repairs and system upgrades that are required steps on the MAO milestone schedule. Staff said smoke-testing procurement and subsequent reports are next steps before the city can identify and remediate the highest-priority infiltration and inflow issues.
The extension resolution sets the renewal at the six-month maximum allowed under state law. The council did not change the moratorium findings; staff told the council the findings in the extension incorporate the findings that supported the original moratorium.
What’s next: the city will continue MAO-driven work on treatment-plant capacity, I&I (infiltration and inflow) repairs and industrial pretreatment items. Because the MAO is intended to remain in effect for a multi-year period, staff said the moratorium could require additional extensions until the MAO milestones are fully satisfied.
