Welcome to the Pacific City-Woods community!  Pacific City Joint Water-Sanitary Authority (PCJWSA) is your publicly owned water and wastewater district. Our mission is to provide safe, reliable drinking water and wastewater services .

Our offices are located at 34005 Cape Kiwanda Drive in Pacific City, Oregon.  We serve the unincorporated communities of Pacific City and Woods, a 2.7 square mile area with an approximate population of 1250 permanent and 7500 seasonal residents

As an unincorporated community, Pacific City is under the legal jurisdiction of Tillamook County for land use, county road maintenance, and law enforcement and most other public services. For water and sewer services Pacific City Joint Water-Sanitary Authority (PCJWSA) was formed in 1998 when our local Water and Sewer Districts were combined.  As with any Special District under Oregon Law, PCJWSA has the authority to enact ordinances and policy resolutions that regulate the use of water and sewer services within its geographic boundaries.  Our policies and procedures are overseen by a publicly elected Board of Directors For more information on special districts in Oregon see:  http://ref.sdao.com/general/what-is-special-district.pdf.

We provide below some information on how we conduct business with our customers.  If you have questions of a more specific nature, please contact us at 503-965-6636.

Billings and Payments:

We bill property owners for water and sewer services.  For this, and many other reasons, it is very important that you keep us informed of any changes in your contact information.

If you rent your property it is important to note that, while we can receive payment from anyone, we cannot bill tenants for water and sewer services.

Water meters are read between the 26th and the 29th of each month. For meter reading purposes, and in the event of an emergency involving your water service, we expect your water meter to be kept free of encumbrances – i.e. sand, rocks, debris, vehicles and landscaping. If we must remove encumbrances to read your meter, or address an emergency, the cost of that work will be at your expense.

Billings are sent during the last week of each month and are due and payable on the 15th of the month following the billing. We accept cash, checks, and credit card payments or you can pay on the web here.  If you receive your billing electronically, please look for any important notices that may be attached to that message.

Water consumption, as shown on your bill, is measured in cubic feet. To calculate how many gallons you have used, you can multiply the cubic feet by 7.48. To better understand your monthly charges please see the enclosed rate sheet or check online at Pacific City JWSA Rates & Collection Policies.

Emergency Procedures:

In the event of an emergency (for example, a sudden disruption of water services, a sewer backup into your house) please call us at 503-965-6636 as soon as possible.  If your call comes after our normal business hours (Monday through Friday, 8:00am to 4:30PM) you will be directed to call our emergency dispatch line and our on-call staff will be contacted.

Delinquent Accounts:

In the unlikely event that your account becomes delinquent (defined as 90 days overdue), we will send you a notice of impending service termination unless your balance is paid by the date indicated on the notice. If you do not respond by that date, your service will be locked and/or removed and a $100.00 service lock off fee will be added to your account balance. To have your service restored, you will be required to pay the entire balance. We charge 18% per annum for past due balances. Our fee for returned checks due to insufficient funds, stop payment, closed account, etc. is $25.00 per returned check.

If you have financial difficulties and are unable to pay your entire bill prior to service termination, please call our office for short-term options.

Other Information:

If PCJWSA’s scheduled maintenance activities, such as line flushing, threaten to interrupt your water service for an extended period, we will make every effort to inform you, either by a message in your monthly water/sewer bill (as an attachment to electronic billings) or a hand-delivered notice to your residence. However, a water­line break would constitute an emergency, and our priority will be to get the water line shut off and repaired as soon as possible, so it isn’t likely we would have time to deliver a notice to your door. If your water has been off due to a waterline break or waterline flushing, once water is restored, we advise you to open your taps and let the water run until clear before consuming.

The water meter and water meter valve that serves your property belongs to PCJWSA. We repair and/or replace the meter and its associated components as necessary. The meter shut-off valve is not to be used as your personal water shut-off.

Because PCJWSA locks meters in the, “open” position for normal service, you should install your own water shut-off valve immediately downstream of the water meter in a separate valve box if one is not already present. New water service installations (After Nov. 1, 2011) will come with an owner’s personal water shut-off valve already installed.

If you attempt to use the PCJWSA meter shut-off valve and you break any of the components, PCJWSA will bill you for time and materials to effect repairs.

If you do not have a personal water shut-off valve and would like to install one, please contact our office to schedule a time for our personnel to turn your water off for you. If you need after-hour emergency assistance to turn your water off, our standard emergency callout fees will apply. Our normal business hours are Monday-Friday, 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM. Our office phone number is 503-965-6636.

If your meter is shut off at your request, you will continue to receive monthly billings, unless you opt for an ‘Indefinite Lock off,’ in which case we will turn your meter off, place a padlock on it and stop billing until you send us a written notice to unlock it. The procedure is to submit a signed request telling us when to lock the meter and include the fee of $200.00 plus your account balance.

Water service connection fees, system development charges and monthly user fees apply to one service connection. Additional connections on a permitted property, such as converting a single-family dwelling unit into a multi-family dwelling unit, motor homes, travel trailers or any type of RV, are prohibited without first having made application for permission to connect, along with the payment of additional connection fees and properly installed water lines.  Monthly billing for additional connections shall be separate from the primary residence.

PCJWSA rules prohibit discharge from rainwater runoff, by downspout or other means, into the sanitary sewer system.

Backflow Prevention Assembly:

The Oregon State Health Division and Uniform Plumbing Code both require property owners to install backflow prevention assemblies on their waterlines if their dwellings or accessory structures use the water service for other than usual living needs. Examples of unusual uses would be the use of underground sprinklers or a recirculating heating system using under-floor waterlines. For more examples of unusual uses, ask for our Cross Connection Control Survey form.