The Coos County Urban Renewal Agency has agreed to commit $100,000 to help Coos Bay extend two sewer lines under the bay, becoming the city's first official partner in a $1 million venture to bring sanitary services to the North Spit.

The agency on Friday voted to make a lump-sum payment to assist the city in its development efforts and also approved a $750 expenditure to pay for an application to the Division of State Lands, which is required for the city to get an easement under the bay.

"This (project) has the potential to solve the sewer problems" for the area, said Doc Stevenson, a former Coos County commissioner who holds a position on the Urban Renewal Agency.

Coos Bay is looking for eight or nine contributors to help defray the cost of the project, which would extend an 8-inch line to carry waste to the city's Empire treatment plant from the North Spit. A second, 24-inch line, would bring treated wastewater from Empire to the North Spit, where it eventually could be connected to an existing ocean outfall into the Pacific Ocean.

With needed partners collaborating in the deal, the city hopes the annual debt service for each agency would be approximately $10,000.

Some of the other partners that will be approached about a contribution include the Charleston Sanitary District, the Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians, the Coquille Indian Tribe, the city of North Bend, the Coos Bay Urban Renewal Agency, South Slough National Estuarine Reserve, the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology and Coos County.

Stevenson said the Urban Renewal Agency's commitment puts the city in better position when approaching other groups for funding.

"It's good to have some commitment when you're going out to other agencies," Stevenson said.

While the project could successfully improve the economic development potential of the North Spit by making the area more attractive to large corporations, Coos Bay officials feel the major advantage of the project is in the long-term benefits and the possibility that the city could serve the entire region's wastewater needs.

With many cities now facing moratoriums, or impending moratoriums, on their sewer hookups due to environmental regulations, expanding the city's capability could be a valuable asset for the entire region.

The city sees a secondary benefit as well.

Since the city's Empire station outfall is near prime oyster beds, Coos Bay is required to meet higher standards than it would if it was releasing treated wastewater in the Pacific Ocean. Coos Bay Mayor Joe Benetti said he hopes that by hooking to an ocean outfall, the city may be able to redirect some funds that have been dedicated to upgrading the Empire treatment plant, plant 2, toward developing a pump station on the North Spit.

The cost to hook up to the ocean outfall and install a new pump station to push waste from the North Spit out to the ocean has been estimated at about $1.5 million. Benetti said he hopes the city will be able to find grants and funding for that phase of the project, something that isn't available for the $1 million plan to develop sewer lines under the bay.

But the underbay project already is being touted as a major saving for the area.

Installing the sewer lines in conjunction with NW Natural's gas lines and the Coos Bay-North Bend Water Board's two water lines is expected to save the city about 50 percent of the cost of development. Even with that saving, the city still needs partners to help make the venture a reality.

The first to step forward is the Urban Renewal Agency.

The agency has approximately $1 million in funds but about $800,000 of it already is committed to various projects. That will leave the agency with $200,000 in disposable funds and Commissioner John Griffith said the agency needs to start committing to new developments.

"Our positive to negative ratio is a little skewed," he said. "We need to be carrying more debt."

Coos County Commissioner Nikki Whitty, also an agency member who suggested the $100,000 contribution, dissuaded the committee from entering a long-term debt and said the group should consider making a lump payment instead.

She said the group can reconsider its $100,000 at a later date to determine if the agency should contribute more toward the project. On Friday, the agency was hesitant to commit its full $200,000 because members believe their funding will start to decline in the upcoming years.

With the closure of Weyerhaeuser's North Spit containerboard mill and the future destruction of income-generating buildings, the Urban Renewal Agency stands to lose one of its largest contributors.

Chairman Todd Goergen said the agency's funding levels should remain stable, at least for the near future while Weyerhaeuser conducts an internal audit prior to the demolition.

"I don't think we're going to see the value plummet over the next 24 months," Goergen said, adding that he would expect an approximate 20-percent drop.

Ironically, it was Weyerhaeuser's plant closure that opened the way for the city to take advantage of the situation. A new state law that went into effect in January allows cities to extend municipal services outside the urban growth boundaries if a mill has either been abandoned or has operated at less than 25 percent of capacity since Jan. 1, 2003.