A buyer moving to Pasco from out of state pulled up her preliminary title report last spring and called her lender in a mild panic. Two separate line items, both labeled irrigation, both tied to the same parcel, both asking for money. Her first instinct was that someone had made a clerical error. Nobody had. In Pasco, a single property can be billed by two entirely different irrigation systems, and depending on the neighborhood, a third charge can be sitting on the title as a recorded lien that has nothing to do with water at all.
This is the kind of detail that never shows up in a generic closing-cost checklist, because it isn't generic. It's specific to how Pasco grew, and it's exactly the sort of thing that trips up a buyer who assumes "irrigation" means a lawn sprinkler company sent an invoice.
Three things can be called "irrigation" on one property
The City of Pasco runs its own irrigation utility, separate from domestic water and sewer, delivering non-potable water for lawns and landscaping through city-owned infrastructure. The city's irrigation system typically runs April through October, with the exact start and stop dates shifting with the weather. For 2026, the system turned on April 10. Once it's live, addresses are split into watering days: even-numbered addresses water Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday, while odd-numbered addresses water Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday. Miss that schedule and you're not breaking a neighborhood norm, you're working against how the city manages pressure across the whole system.
That's layer one, and it only applies inside city limits where Pasco itself supplies the water.
Layer two is a completely different organization: Franklin County Irrigation District #1, a special-purpose district serving its own footprint, generally south of the I-182 corridor and north of the Columbia River, bounded roughly by North 20th Avenue on the east and Shoreline Court on the west. FCID has its own governing board, covers roughly 5,124 acres according to the Washington State Water Resources Association's directory of member districts, and bills through the Franklin County Treasurer, not the city. A property inside FCID's boundary gets its own irrigation parcel number, distinct from the parcel number on the regular property tax bill, because the county treats irrigation assessments as a separate account tied to the land.
So a house can be billed by the city for domestic water and sewer, billed by FCID for irrigation water, and show up on the county tax rolls with two parcel numbers instead of one. Neither charge is optional once the property sits inside the relevant boundary. Neither is a scam, a duplicate, or an error worth disputing. They're two different water systems that happen to serve overlapping ground.
The charge that outlasts the person who agreed to it
Layer three doesn't involve water at all, and it's the one with the most consequence for a buyer who skips it.
Pasco uses Local Improvement Districts to fund neighborhood-level infrastructure. When enough property owners along a street want something the city isn't already planning, paving, a sewer extension, storm drainage, undergrounding overhead power, they petition the city to form an LID. Once formed, the cost is divided proportionally among the benefited properties, and owners can pay it off during a short window or roll it into installment payments, typically ten years for street work and fifteen years for water and sewer improvements.
Here's the part that matters at closing. The city confirms that a lien is recorded against the property at the moment the LID is formed, and title companies are notified annually of every property still carrying an LID balance. That lien doesn't attach to the person who signed the petition. It attaches to the land. If a seller financed an LID assessment over fifteen years and only made it to year six, the remaining balance is the buyer's obligation unless it gets paid off or credited at closing.
There's a second wrinkle worth knowing even if you never end up inside an LID boundary: according to the city's own FAQ on the process, silence during the formation period counts as support. A property owner who doesn't respond to the interest survey or the formation hearing isn't neutral in the process. They're recorded as being in favor. That single rule explains why LIDs sometimes form in neighborhoods where, if you asked residents directly, plenty would say they never wanted it. Nobody protested in writing, so nobody's objection counted.
What this actually costs, and what it doesn't
None of this means Pasco is more expensive to own in than anywhere else in the Tri-Cities. Zillow's data on this agent's own transaction history over the past year shows Pasco-area sales spanning roughly $70,000 to $1 million with an average price near $491,000, a range wide enough to include both starter homes and larger new-construction properties, and irrigation and LID charges are typically modest relative to a mortgage payment. The issue isn't the dollar amount. It's that these charges are invisible on a portal listing and easy to miss on a fast timeline, and they surface at the exact moment a buyer has the least appetite for surprises: the week before closing.
A comparison makes the structure easier to hold in your head.
| Charge | Who bills it | What it covers | Where it shows up |
|---|---|---|---|
| City domestic water/sewer | City of Pasco | Household water, sewer service | Regular city utility bill |
| City-supplied irrigation | City of Pasco | Seasonal landscaping water, April to October | Separate city utility line |
| FCID irrigation assessment | Franklin County Treasurer, on behalf of FCID | Canal-delivered irrigation water in FCID's boundary | Separate irrigation parcel number on county tax records |
| LID assessment | City of Pasco, collected with property tax | Street, sewer, or utility improvements benefiting specific properties | Recorded lien, annual bill, disclosed to title companies |
What to check before you write an offer
If you're actively shopping in Pasco, a few questions to your agent or escrow officer will surface all of this before it becomes a closing-day surprise.
- Ask whether the property sits inside Franklin County Irrigation District #1's boundary, and if so, request the separate irrigation parcel number and its current balance.
- Ask the title company directly whether an LID lien is recorded against the parcel, and if one exists, whether it's being paid off at closing or assumed by the buyer.
- If the home has city-supplied irrigation, ask which watering days apply to the address so you're not guessing your first summer.
- For new construction or a recently subdivided lot, ask whether the surrounding streets were built through an LID petition, since newer neighborhoods are more likely to carry an active assessment than established ones.
Sellers have a role here too. Nobody wants to reach the settlement table and discover a fifteen-year LID balance eating into proceeds that weren't budgeted for. Pulling a current title report early, well before listing, gives a seller time to decide whether to pay off an outstanding assessment or price the home with it in mind.
FAQ
Does every home in Pasco have these charges? No. City-supplied irrigation only applies inside the city's own service area, FCID assessments only apply inside that district's boundary, and LID liens only exist where a specific street or utility project was petitioned and formed. Plenty of Pasco properties carry none of these charges, and some carry two or three.
Can a buyer negotiate an LID payoff into the purchase agreement? That's a conversation for your agent and the seller, worked out on a case-by-case basis and confirmed by the title company as part of closing. It isn't automatic, so it has to be raised early, not discovered at the settlement table.
Where does the irrigation parcel number come from if my address has just one on the listing? The Franklin County Treasurer assigns a second, related parcel number to properties inside FCID's boundary, distinct from the standard tax parcel. If you don't see it on a listing sheet, ask your escrow officer to pull it directly from the county.
If you're weighing a Pasco purchase or sale and want someone who already knows which questions to ask before you're staring at a settlement statement, take a look at the Pasco neighborhood guide or reach out directly. I'd rather walk you through this in a conversation than have you find out about it in an email from escrow. Visit Kelsie Knight and Schedule a Consultation so we can talk through what your specific address is actually carrying.
