RVSS bills coming due for Gold Hill residents after annexation vote
Published 3:00 pm Monday, December 4, 2023
- Charles Griggs, treatment plant operator for Rogue Valley Sewer Services, works at the Gold Hill wastewater treatment plant Monday. RVSS continues to operate the 40-plus-year-old plant while design and construction is planned for an $11 million, eight-mile pipeline, between Gold Hill and Medford, that would replace the antiquated plant.
Gold Hill residents will see a new bill in their mailboxes this week.
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It’s the first visible change since voters decided in August to annex the city into the Rogue Valley Sewer Services district. The billing change will officially separate wastewater treatment from the city’s monthly utility bill, which includes water and other fees.
Voters decided Aug. 22 by an overwhelming 93% approval to annex into RVSS, decommission the city’s wastewater treatment plant and construct an $11 million pipeline between Gold Hill and Medford.
The move to let voters decide on annexation came more than a decade after the town of just over 1,200 found itself in the crosshairs of the Department of Environmental Quality for discharging unacceptable levels of effluent into the Rogue River.
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In 2013, after discharging 150,000 gallons of nondisinfected effluent into the river, the city was placed under a Mutual Agreement Order with DEQ in 2013, agreeing to come up with a plan to clean up its act by February 2015.
With the deadline come and gone, the city grappled with whether to rebuild its 40-year-old plant or annex into the regional district, ultimately deciding to let voters decide in a special election this summer.
RVSS manager Carl Tappert said his agency officially took over billing in November and has been working in recent weeks to transfer billing and ensure data being used to charge city residents are accurate.
“This will be the first time that people in Gold Hill will be getting bills from us. The rates don’t change, but we’re getting everything switched over,” Tappert said.
While rates are some of the highest in the region, residents will eventually see lower cost for wastewater treatment once the pipeline project is paid for. Initially, rates were increased from $62 to $78.88, in July, to start generating funding for construction.
Once debt service for the eight-mile pipeline construction is calculated, rates will increase to $91. An additional increase could come after project completion, as well as another adjustment due to a $300 million expansion at Medford’s regional facility.
Tappert said a small group of residents previously benefiting from a billing error will be impacted with the billing change this week.
“There are a couple of mobile home parks that haven’t been billed correctly, so they will obviously see a significant increase. The city had not been billing for each place, so that was the biggest surprise we ran into,” Tappert said.
“One had something like 78 units, being billed as one. Another had 20 or 21 (homes), being billed as two … so things will change a bit more for those residents. Everyone else will continue paying the same thing as last month.”
Tappert said RVSS selected a design engineer in recent weeks: Portland-based Tetra Tech Engineering. While the old plant will be decommissioned, Tappert said the property will be used for a pump station in the new setup.
“We’re looking at two years before we go out to bid. RVSS is still keeping the plant running, so nothing has changed as far as overall operation,” Tappert said.
“We’ll work on designing the intertie and keeping things moving. Everything currently drains to where the plant is, and that’s where we’re going to build the pump station. We may need two pump stations, but that will be determined as part of our design process,” he added.
Tappert said more complex aspects of the project would include right-of-way acquisitions and crossing the Rogue River at the southern end of town. RVSS plans to work in conjunction with a $13 million ODOT project widening the narrow, historic 1927 bridge. The project is set for 2026.
“ODOT is in the design phase to rehabilitate that bridge. We’re not sure if we’ll be ready to build before they’re ready to build, or the other way around, but we’ll have to make sure we have space on that bridge to hang a pipe,” Tappert said.
“As they say, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
RVSS annexation info online for Gold Hill residents can be found at rvss-or.gov/news/gold-hill-annexation-information