The City adopted a public facility plan for sewer collection by Ordinance No. 2111 in 2009. The plan was based on the city’s 2007 Collection System Master Plan and identifies future improvements to the sewerage collection facilities required to serve long range growth in Bend. However, the city’s 2009 Public Facility Plan adopted by the City Council was never acknowledged by the state. The State did acknowledge the 2008 public facility plan for the Water Reclamation Facility, also known as the wastewater treatment plant, through Order 001795 in 2010.

In response to the 2010 UGB Expansion Remand, the City began a comprehensive planning process to update the previous Collection System Master Plan developed in 2007. This planning effort has built on information from the previous master plan, leveraged improvement concepts and utilized system information collected and analyzed in that report. The adopted and acknowledged 2014 Collection System Public Facility Plan replaces the 2009 Public Facility Plan and provides guidance and sound stewardship of the City’s sewer collection system for the 2013 – 2033 planning period.

In October 2016, the Bend City Council approved a number of amendments to the Bend Comprehensive Plan, including an expansion of the Bend UGB to add 2,380 acres of land. The City Council also adopted amendments to the Comprehensive Plan and Development Code to allow more development and redevelopment in certain areas within the existing UGB that are referred to in Chapter 11 as Opportunity Areas. The Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD) approved these plan and land use regulation amendments, including the UGB expansion, in December 2016.

In 2017, the City began work to update the Public Facility Plan for the sewer collection system (CSPFP) to reflect those improvements that would be needed to serve the entire UGB, development in the Opportunity Areas, and those projects that were identified to serve the Expansion Areas included in the 2016 UGB expansion. This update also included making changes to two interceptor projects. These projects included the East Interceptor, a former segment of the Southeast Interceptor now identified as its own project, and the North Interceptor. The City adopted changes to the CSPFP to reflect revised alignments and pipe sizes for these projects. The City Council adopted the amended Collection System PFP in 2018 to include these projects to support development in the Opportunity Areas and the Expansion Areas.

Service Area

The collection system service area includes all areas within the city limits of Bend and the Urban Growth Boundary that are either currently served by the City’s wastewater collection system or will be served by the system within the 20-year planning period. To determine the future development projections within the UGB, the City relied upon and applied the adopted Comprehensive Plan designations.

The City’s Collection System Public Facility Plan separates the primary collection system into nine major sewer basins covering the approximate 37 square miles of the UGB. These nine major sewer basins are further sub-divided into several smaller sewer sub-basins for the purpose of determining flow capacity. The wastewater analysis and future forecasts consider existing customers, future customers and the conversion of septic to sewer connections within the UGB. There are currently 3,103 residential units and 158 non-residential acres that are served by a County permitted septic system within the UGB. Within the 20-year planning period it is assumed that these residential units and non-residential acres will redevelop and/or connect to the city’s collection system.

The City’s primary wastewater collection system is generally comprised of manholes, gravity pipelines, City-owned lift stations and force mains that convey sewage to the wastewater reclamation facility through 249 miles of gravity pipe and 69 miles of force main and pressure sewer pipeline. Most of the gravity collection system was constructed in the late 1970’s, when the City received federal funding to construct a centralized wastewater treatment plant. The City completed its sewerage collection system and treatment plant in 1983. Since that time a number of upgrades have occurred in both the plant and collection system. The wastewater treatment plant has capacity for an average flow of approximately seven million gallons a day. Table 8-1 charts the average daily flows at the wastewater treatment plant and shows a gradual increase of the average daily flow. The flow data includes seasonal wet weather events.

The master plan for the wastewater reclamation facility (WRF) was completed in 2008 by Carollo Engineering. The plan for the WRF was submitted to the Department of Land Conservation and Development in 2009. The Land Conservation and Development Commission (LCDC) acknowledged the 2008 plan for the WRF through Order 001795 in November 2010. The WRF Master Plan identifies short term and long term capacity improvements that will enable the City of Bend to minimize expansion costs by fully utilizing the existing facilities. The 2014 Collection System Public Facilities Plan proposes improvements to increase the capacity of the collection system to 11.9 MGD within the 20-year planning period. The design of the WRF was completed in 2012, with construction beginning in the summer 2013. The City expects the WRF expansion to be completed by 2019. The 2018 CSPFP includes improvements necessary to serve the entire UGB, including specific improvements necessary to provide wastewater collection to the areas added to the UGB in 2016.

Optimization

The City utilized an optimization process to determine the combination of system improvements that would satisfy hydraulic performance criteria and minimize overall life-cycle costs. The optimization model enables an exhaustive and objective evaluation of feasible collection system improvement alternatives. The optimization software, Optimizer WCSTM, is a decision-support software program that integrates improvement alternatives, comprehensive life-cycle costs, design criteria and the calibrated hydraulic model of the collection system. In a single optimization analysis, the software evaluates over 100,000 possible solution configurations and assesses life-cycle cost and hydraulic performance simultaneously while sizing system improvements. Over the course of this project, over one hundred individual optimization runs were completed, representing a total analysis of more than 10 million trial solutions.

The optimization process identified short-term and long-term capacity upgrade projects to be phased over the 20-year planning period.

Capital Improvement Program

The Capital Improvement Program (CIP) describes proposed improvements that are required in both the short-term (1-5 year), mid-term (6 to 10 years) and long-term (11 to 20 years) to provide reliable sewer collection throughout the City’s current UGB.

The 2018 update to the CSPFP organized improvement projects by whether they were:

For consistency with Goal 11 and its administrative rule, projects needed between 1 to 5 years are considered short term, and projects needed between 6 years and the remainder of the planning period are considered long term.

Projects were further organized in the following categories:

The final category of improvements refers to those needed to serve development and land uses in several of the UGB expansion Areas. The following organization of projects into short-term, short to mid-term, and mid to long term reflects the presentation in the 2018 CSPFP. Figure 8-2 provides a map that identifies the locations of these key projects. The 2018 CSPFP provides a written description for each project as well.

Short Term Projects. The major projects recommended in the 1 to 5-year timeframe include:

Short to Mid-Term Projects (Development Driven). These projects are driven by development location and timing, and are identified as needed between the short-term (1 to 5 years) and mid-term (6 to 10 years).

Mid to Long Term Projects (Development Driven). The following projects are also development driven and identified as needed in the mid (6 to 10 years) to long term (11 to 20).

Expansion Area Service. The final list of projects is those intended to support development in several of the UGB Expansion Areas. The 2018 CSPFP identifies several large projects, such as the North Interceptor Phases 2 and 3, and East Interceptor Phases 1 and 2, that are needed for both UGB Expansion Areas and for accommodating wastewater flows to the WRF. This list of projects is specific to several UGB Expansion Areas and will likely be needed in the Short Term (1 to 5 years).

Table 8-2 presents the capital improvement program cost summary in 2017 dollars by project category.

Notes:

1. All costs shown in millions and are Class 5 budget estimates established by the American Association of Cost Engineers.

The actual project costs will likely vary from the estimates presented. In addition, the project estimates will change over time due to fluctuations in actual labor and material costs, competitive market conditions, site conditions, final project scope, implementation schedule, continuity of personnel, and other unforeseeable factors. Because of these factors, project feasibility, benefit-to-cost ratios, risks and funding must be carefully reviewed prior to making specific financial decisions or establishing project specific budgets. The projects listed above as short term, short to mid-term, and mid to long-term are reflected in the following map identified as Figure 8-2. This figure also shows the location of the Expansion Area Projects.

Sewer Collection System Financial Strategy

The City’s financial strategy for the collection system considers the current and future financial obligations of the utility, operation and maintenance needs, fiscal policy achievement and the ability to support the completion of the capital projects identified in this CSMP update.

The overall goal of the financial plan is to have the annual water reclamation utility total resources (rates and fees) set at a sufficient level to meet annual uses (operations, maintenance, debt service, capital costs and fiscal policy achievement) to ensure a self-supported utility. The primary source of funding for the utility is derived from ongoing monthly charges for service, with additional revenue coming from miscellaneous fees/charges, interest income and system development charges (SDCs). The City Council controls and approves the level of user charges as needed to meet financial objectives. The financial plan considers the total system costs of providing water reclamation services, both operating and capital. The following elements were completed as part of the financial plan:

Capital Funding Plan. Identifies the total Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) funding obligations of the planning period. The plan defines a strategy for funding the CIP including an analysis of available resources from rate revenues, existing reserves, system development charges, debt financing, and any special resources that may be readily available (e.g., grants, developer contributions, public private partnerships, etc.). The capital funding plan impacts the financial plan through the use of debt financing (resulting in annual debt service) and the assumed rate revenue available for capital funding.

Operating Forecast. Identifies future annual non-capital costs associated with the operating, maintenance, and administration of the water reclamation system. Included in the financial plan is a reserve analysis that forecasts cash flow and fund balance activity along with testing for satisfaction of actual or recommended minimum fund balance policies. The financial plan ultimately evaluates the sufficiency of utility revenues in meeting all obligations, including cash uses such as operating expenses, debt service, capital outlays, and reserve contributions, as well as any debt service coverage requirements associated with long-term debt. The plan also identifies the future adjustments required to fully fund all utility obligations in the projection period.

Sewer Rates. The City Council approved the FY 2017-18 Resolution No. 3077 on June 21, 2017. This resolution included a change to the monthly sewer rate as follows:

For each of these categories of sewer rate charge, there is also a volume charge of $3.62 per 100 cubic feet of winter quarter average (WQA) water usage. In addition, the City Council has also implemented an extra strength charge (ESC) that will be phased in over four years, with the 2017-2018 representing the 2nd year of this phase in. The financial plan indicates that rate increases of approximately 6% per year will be needed through FY 2021 to meet current water reclamation utility rate revenue requirements. Annual inflationary rate increases are anticipated for the remainder of the 20-year financial planning horizon. Actual rate increases may vary depending on timing and costs of projects. This projection assumes that the customer base grows by 1.4% per year.

System Development Charges.

SDCs are one-time fees imposed on new and increased development to recover the cost of system facilities needed to serve that growth. An SDC can include two major components:

The financial plan includes the City’s sewer SDC, and at its current rate of $4,655 per equivalent dwelling unit. The FCS Group completed the latest Sewer SDC study for the City in June 2015. This SDC study incorporated information from the 2014 CSMP and SPFP to support the calculation of the Sewer SDC of $4,655. The City Council approved the increase in the Sewer SDC to this amount in Resolution 3077 on June 21, 2017.