The City of Spokane is charged by its citizens to provide basic services such as police, fire, street repair, garbage, and water and wastewater management. We believe clean water is a fundamental right and responsibility, and that an overall healthy environment is one of the City's highest priorities.

Every day the City is permitted by Ecology to process up to 44 million gallons of household kitchen, toilet, shower and laundry wastewater from the City's and County's collection systems, along with some industrial wastes, at the Riverside Park Water Reclamation Facility (RPWRF). Citizens expect these services to be reliable and affordable.

In addition, the City manages a stormwater drainage system that includes:

• 300 miles of separate storm sewers that discharge directly in the Spokane River at 80 locations, 40 of which are from bridges.
• Over 400 miles of combined storm/sewer systems that can discharge stormwater mixed with sewage to the river during moderate to heavy rainfall and snowmelt events.
• Thousands of grassy swales and dry well structures that infiltrate stormwater into the ground following water quality treatment to trap sediments, oil and grease, and remove some pollutants.

The City's effluent meets state water quality standards that protect the Spokane River. Major capital improvements at the treatment plant have been underway since 1998, and are planned over the next 20 years to ensure water quality.

The City's "pay as you go" philosophy to fund these improvements, estimated to cost over $500 million, means projects are paid for as constructed. The City doesn't have to borrow money and to pay additional interest to get the projects done. The upgrades are necessary to continue to meet regulatory requirements, and employ best available control technology (BACT).

In order to protect citizen ratepayers from swift and huge increases in rates without borrowing money, the City started collecting a "rate stabilization fee" from ratepayers in 1998 to pay for these upgrades. The initial fee was $2 per month per each utility customer, but that amount has since risen to $7 and is expected to rise to $10 per month per customer in 2006 and $13 in 2007 where it is expected to remain for 20 years.

The standard monthly residential utility bill within the city limits currently is about $11 per month for water, $27 per month for sewer, and $22 for garbage service with one 68-gallon can -- or about $60 per month. This includes current rate stabilization fees for both sewer and water.