The working group of the Oroville Association REALTORS® met with officials of the Lake Oroville Area Public Utility District (LOAPUD) yesterday to continue discussions aimed at crafting a fair and balanced solution to the issue of faulty sewer laterals in the district and throughout the greater Oroville real estate market.
You recall that the district, under pressure from the State of California to do something to avoid possible contamination of ground water, intended to implement the onerous and unfair program of requiring sewer laterals to be tested and repaired before allowing the sale of a home within the district to close escrow. This point of sale requirement is bad on nearly every level and I have adamantly voiced my opposition to this since becoming aware of the requirement in July. If you would like to refresh your memory on the issue please click on the link below to see my previous blog posts about this.
History of LOAPUD Posts
In addition to LOAPUD officials, REALTORS®, title company representatives and m
yself, the meeting was also attended by representatives from the other two sewer districts in town, (City of Oroville and Thermalito Irrigation District), as they too are looking to implement a sewer lateral repair program.
The result of this latest meeting was very encouraging as all parties not only expressed a willingness to work together to come with a workable solution but also actually discussed alternatives to the existing plan.
The idea that seemed to garner the most positive response by all is a variation of what I suggested in my blog post of August 27th when I said:
“ A better approach is to divide the district into 6 sections and each year have one section tested for compliance. Any home out of compliance would be given 6 months to make any repairs. In 6 1/2 years you would have all homes in compliance..Problem solved.”
District officials are now suggesting that, instead of holding up a sales transaction for repairs, the policy could be changed to require a lateral test as part of the escrow and any required repairs would take place within a certain period of time after close of escrow, say 3-6 months. The problem with this variation is that there is still a REQUIREMENT by the district to have the test done before the escrow closes. The result is that the district injects itself directly into the real estate transaction and we never get to a date certain when the entire sewer infrastructure is functioning property.
The variation of my idea that I would endorse is one whereby the district is divided into 5 or 6 sectors and a date certain for compliance is established in each sector. The sector most out of compliance would be targeted for repairs during the first year of the program, then the 2nd most out of compliance sector would be done the next year, and so on. A disclosure can be made to each home buyer and home seller during the negotiation process making both of them aware of the policy. On a number of levels this plan would work much better than any others. Here is why I say this.
- It completely takes the inspection and repair burden off of the escrow process and moves it into the negotiating process whereby the buyer and seller decides who will be responsible for inspection and repairs before entering into an agreement.
- It requires EVERYONE in the district, over a far shorter time, to inspect their laterals and make any necessary repairs.
- It removes the burden of placing Oroville REALTORS in the role of “sewer police” and places that burden onto the district where is belongs.
- From an administrative standpoint for the district it is easier and cheaper to track date certain compliance versus a 3-6 month time frame after close of escrow compliance. There would be quite a bit more paperwork and manpower to enforce the latter of these.
- Above all else it gets the integrity of the sewer infrastructure back to an acceptable standard in 5-7 years instead of 35-40 years and does its part to ensure clean ground water. A goal we have all agreed it necessary.
- The more aggressive approach of a date certain program should help to get the State of California off the back of the districts and eliminate the possibilities of major fines for violations of any environmental regulations.
It was impressive to attend the meeting and see constructive progress being made on this issue. District officials have shown a great degree of professionalism in how they have handled the criticism of their original plan. It takes a great degree of integrity to admit, that in hindsight, they were not fully informed on how this would negatively affect the sale of Oroville homes. I, for one, appreciate the job they are doing, with the State breathing down their backs.
I encourage the district to adopt the modifications discussed here as quickly as possible in order to keep our ground water clean.
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Hey Mark, well said. Just want to add that “your plan” was the plan we have been trying to convince them to accept from the beginning.
It really is the only way to address the problem in a short enough period of time to make a meaningful difference to the winter inflows to the treatment plant.
The treatment plant, by the way is the real issue here. It appears there has not been proper planning in anticipating the needs of the community with regards to sewage treatment needs. Which probably means “sticker shock” to the community when they find out what it will cost to expand the plant to serve our needs for the next 50 years.