Sep. 30--BELLINGHAM -- The city will begin replacing private sewer lines in the public right of way, after a private line serving 13 York neighborhood households failed and left raw sewage in a backyard.

Neighbors were angry the city wouldn't fix the line, which was privately owned but ran below a public alley. Homeowners, who had no idea the line was private, had to pay about $5,000 themselves to fix it.

Now, Bellingham Public Works will look to replace one or two of the private lines citywide per year, as part of its annual program to replace old city sewer lines. In all, officials estimated it would cost about $500,000 to replace lines serving three or more homes.

Once the private ones are replaced, the city would assume ownership.

"We will make Franklin (in York) one of the first ones on the list," Public Works Director Dick McKinley told the City Council Monday, Sept. 29. "We understand it got a patch and not the whole job."

Private landowners own small sewer lines, called laterals, which run from homes to the city's sewer mainline along a street. Often, the laterals serve only the one house.

In hundreds of cases, laterals split into a "Y" and serve two houses. But in 19 cases, private laterals under a public right of way serve three or more homes, according to Public Works data. One line, in the Sehome neighborhood, served 14 homes.

Homeowners often don't know if they share a private line, until it breaks. The information is not in a property title. The only way to know is to ask city Public Works.

The city's data looked only at laterals that run under the public right of way. McKinley said officials don't want to replace those under private property because there's no practical way for the city to maintain them.

No City Council members spoke against the Public Works' recommendation to start replacing the private lines serving three or more homes under the public right of way. City Council member Terry Bornemann asked staff to return a written statement of the replacement policy so the council could vote to approve that.

The city didn't have to choose to replace and take over the private lines, but that was one option. Another option was to have private property owners pay to replace the lateral to city standards and give it to the city.

The city can't spend sewer customers' money to fix a private lateral, McKinley said, because that would be considered an illegal gifting of public funds.

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