The attorney for the Tuolumne City Sanitary District said talks between the district and Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuks could lead to a resolution regarding money the district says the tribe owes.

“We’re close,” said the district’s attorney Pat Greenwell in a brief interview this week. “I think it’s going to be good news for everybody.”
 

District officials have been talking for several months with tribal representatives regarding a possible settlement over the disputed funds.

The earliest a funding agreement could be reached would be Nov. 4, the district’s next regularly scheduled meeting, according to Greenwell.

The district contends the tribe owes $2.9 million in sewer fees, which the district needs to put the final touches on a substantially completed sewer project in Tuolumne.

The project, awarded in May 2008, was done largely to accommodate growth related to the tribe’s Black Oak Casino, which, according to the district, accounts for two-thirds of the sewer plant’s loading.

The tribe, meanwhile, has contended the $2.9 million in fees was based on faulty data, even going so far as to say the district’s sewer plant operator was tampering with the samples that were used to bill the tribe in order to get more funding from the tribe.

Without an infusion from the tribe or a loan, the district’s finances are imperiled.

The tribe has expressed interest in reaching a settlement with the district. District officials though, in open session at least, have not strayed from the amount they say is owed. The ongoing talks between the tribe and a non-quorum committee of the district board have been closed.

Tribal officials could not be reached by press time.

At a district meeting in September, some audience members expressed concern that if the tribe doesn’t pay up or funding isn’t found elsewhere, ratepayers could be on the hook to replenish the district’s finances.
   
Sample strength

In order to determine if the tribe’s claims about distorted sewer samples, which the district uses to bill the tribe, were faulty, the tribe and district agreed to enter into a several-week parallel testing program.

According to the district’s engineer Harold Welborn, the last of the samples were tallied recently and the results show that the amount of dissolved solids from the casino’s wastewater is greater than what the original samples show. He said this backs up the district’s argument.

The tribe originally paid more than $4 million to the district for connection fees, which went to fund most of the $6 million sewer project. Subsequent testing by the district, though, showed that the tribe owed $2.9 million more.