OAG 40-62.

• Case Date: September 18, 1940
• Court: Oregon

Oregon Attorney General Opinions 1940. OAG 40-62. 72OPINION NO. 40-62[20 Or. Op. Atty. Gen. 72]The State Sanitary Authority has no right to order the city of Portland to double or increase its sewer service charge rates which have been fixed by a duly enacted ordinance. In order to have such validity that it can be made the basis for a proceeding in court to73abate an existing nuisance an order of the State Sanitary Authority must be based upon findings of fact made as a result of a public hearing, research or investigation made by such authority.September 18, 1940.Mr. Harold Wendel,Chairman, State Sanitary Authority. Dear Mr. Wendel: You have requested my opinion upon the following questions:

"Without actually initiating some appropriate court proceedings wherein the City of Portland and its officers would be named defendants, and without, after a full hearing in such proceedings, adopting a definite order directing the city to accomplish certain results within a designated period of time, may we, on the basis of a more or less informal investigation heretofore conducted, adopt an order directing the city to double, or at least increase its sewer service charge rates as authorized by its recently enacted ordinance, thereby raise additional sums of money, employ a competent staff of engineers, and proceed with the program of financing and building an adequate sewage disposal plant; and would such an order, if one were adopted by the Sanitary Authority under these circumstances, be valid?"

From your statement of the question above quoted, I assume that the State Sanitary Authority has not prepared the program intended to result in the reduction of the pollution of the waters of the Willamette river according to the particular circumstances and conditions existing in Portland, as authorized by subsection (c), section 5 of chapter 3, Oregon Laws, 1939; I further assume that the Authority has not conducted formal public hearings for the purpose of determining and examining the facts relating to the city of Portland; no findings of fact or recommendations have been made or published as a result of any such hearing. With such assumptions as a premise, the question is: Can the State Sanitary Authority legally order the city council to double or increase the sewer service charge rates fixed by ordinance heretofore enacted and now in...