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In the late 1980's, Point Roberts attained an important milestone by
contracting with the GVRD for o long-term clean water supply for our
Community's future.
The second infrastructure consideration, a viable and well-planned
community sewer system should be addressed to determine if a cost
effective means of handling the PR Community's collective waste is feasible.
It is a reasonable conclusion that a wastewater treatment system will be an
eventual reality in our Community's future, and is in the community's best
long range interest to address this important issue.
Issues: Two major considerations need to be addressed:
1. In the existing PR residential community, it is no secret there are an
increasing number of septic failures adding to an already existing problem.
By no later than July , 2OO7 , updated and more stringent septic regulations
will go into effect (see attached regulations).
?. The current cost to install frequently required mounded systems
currently run the residential property owner $15,000- $18K (+) and in many
cases, depending on the requirements of the individual property, the above
ground mound systems are considerably more expensive and often take up
much of the available space on smaller sized lots.
Because many of the lots in current PR developments are small sized, there
are no remedies except sewer to comply with existing WA State septic
codes and regulations. This includes many properties in the South Beach
Area (see attached bar graph-lot size analysis). This situation is also the
case for the many existing vacant lots in Point Roberts.
Opportunity: A unique opportunity exists for the community. Two
projects requiring large scale on-site septic systems are presently in various
stages of development in Point Roberts. Specifically the PR Golf & CC and
the Pier Point projects in the old Cannery building next to lighthouse Park.
The PR Marino would also benefit from the community sewer concept
relative to there future plans.
The realization of these projects in will include the expenditure of
significant capitol funds for their on-site sewer facilities. By diverting the
monies required for their onsite systems to a public sewer project, it
becomes a win-win situation benefiting every property owner involved.
A second major benefit to Point Roberts a community sewer would provide
would be the inclusion of the 'small town commercial areas' of Point Roberts
primarily along the Gulf Road corridor.
A third benefit to the Point Roberts Community would be the effluent water
produced by the wastewater treatment plant. This reclaimed water source
would be utilized for irrigation purposes servicing projects including the PR
Golf & CC. and would also be an additional revenue source for PRWD #4.
SOLUTION: It is our intention to contact representatives of the
various associations in the South Beach area for the purpose of collectively
discussing the septic problems that have plagued this area and develop a plan
to collectively approach our PR Water District with our collective concerns.
Representatives of Waters' Platt Association recently contacted us
expressing a sincere interest in our sewer project.
We have compiled o mailing list of all the property owners in the South
Beach by street. From this list, we can create a property list for each of the
individual associations and attached areas in the South Beach area.