The report also calls for greater equity in sewer rates across the county.

The sewer rate for homeowners whose waste is not treated by a municipal plant has been cut by 76 percent.

And now its residents are bracing for higher sewer rates with few, if any, resources to pay them.

The banks wanted the county to raise sewer rates to cover the missing money.

Local water and sewer rates are already on the way up because of expensive improvements in sewage treatment.

City water and sewer rates rose nearly 20 percent in 1991, mostly to accommodate the anticipated increased costs of sludge processing.

"Until this election," she said, "the most political thing you ever heard people talk about in Canby was stuff about raising the sewer rates."

Ten years ago the city's sewer rate was a third of its water charge.

This year the sewer rate is 59 percent above the water charge.

And there is almost no Federal help available; the money will come mostly from higher local water and sewer rates.