Portland man has the sewer line blues

Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. - For 14 years, Doug Hall has been paying the city of Portland for sewer service. But he doesn't have a line to the public sewer - not yet, anyway.

When he and the city found out recently that his sewage in fact goes to a septic tank, it sent him a refund check for $370.14.

That covers just three of the years he's been paying for service, but that's as much as city code allows. He can file an appeal for four more years' worth.

Oh, and by the way, the city said: Since there's a sewer main beneath the street outside your house, you'll have to hook up.

The price? It starts with a sewer development charge of $4,317, a sum the city reduced in recognition of his overpayments.

And then comes decommissioning the tank and digging to the sewer main line.

Hall told The Oregonian he has a bid for $10,000 to accomplish the work.

It's come as a shock for the 61-year-old disabled and retired bank loan officer, who's on a fixed income. He bought the house and its 1-acre lot in 2000, thinking it had a public sewer connection. He said a broker has since dug out an archived listing that backs him up.

He had paid his bills regularly until he got a notice from the city last month. Workers installing a new water meter detected an underground leak.

Hall said he started making phone calls. The upshot: He learned he's served by a septic tank with a broken line.

"It's an unbelievable story," he said.

Of one of his lengthy calls to the city's Bureau of Environmental Services, he said, "I'm not a fiery guy, but I was getting irritated."

A city spokesman, Linc Mann, said staffers hadn't heard of a similar case among Portland residents.

He says a few hundred residents remain on septic tanks, but where there is sewer service, they are required to hook up.

It isn't clear how Hall's house was missed when the sewer line was extended to the street in 1969, but the owners then may have failed to respond to a city notice, he said.

Mann said the city recognizes Hall is in difficulty he didn't cause.

In an email, he said, "We will continue to grant as much relief to Mr. Hall as possible under city code and have also offered to work with him on financing options available to him."