By CARA LORELLO
Staff Reporter
Airway Heights has seen development of its own water reclamation facility for the past four years come along productively, and last Wednesday officials held their first public meeting, along with overseeing state agencies and city design and consultation firms Century West and GeoEngineers, to inform interested citizens where their plans currently sit and what the next steps will be.
Several citizens turned out for the meeting, which was heavily promoted through the city's Public Works Department with newsletters and formation of a website (http:///www.cawh.org/water_reclamation_plant.asp) with links to project details, including background information, reclamation facts, financing, timelines, plus facts on existing reclamation facilities in Washington cities, including Medical Lake and Cheney. Questionnaire sheets were distributed to the 20 guests who attended.
Plans to address the city's wastewater issues began in 2003 when officials recognized the West Plains was seeing difficult water resource and wastewater challenges that could impact residents and the region long-term.
At this time, several wastewater project options were considered. It was recognized the best solution for the city was to keep water in the region to address both wastewater capacity and limited water availability issues. To provide a service to residents at the lowest possible cost, the city opted to build its own facility, a reclamation plant that would eliminate current discharge to the Spokane River, improve water quality and provide a new source of water to meet the growing demands of the community.
A site was chosen for the new plant in 2005: a 75,000-acre plot bound by McFarlane Road on the south and 21st Avenue on the north. The city is financing the project through a combination of low-interest state loans, grants, and some general obligations bonds, details of which are listed online. The first phase of the project is estimated at over $35 million with the plant operations functioning at a 1 million gallon per day capacity. The second phase will raise capacity to 1.5 million GPD.
The plant will treat wastewater to “ultra” clean Class A, or the highest water quality level to be used for three targeted non-potable needs: land/crop irrigation, commercial/industrial use, and aquifer recharge.
“Most wastewater treatment facilities in Washington discharge treated water, but recent surface water and water quality issues have prompted the state to issue higher standards of water treatment to enable a wider variety of re-use options,” Century West lead consultant Dennis Fuller said.
Achieving Class A water requires advanced biological treatment. After removal of wastewater solids, its put through a series of treatment basins with different filtration systems before reaching a treated storage tank where it's either pumped to reuse locations, or a percolation basin.
Citizens questioned how the city plans to monitor the level of aquifer recharge from the plant, to which Fuller replied the facility would install a soil percolation system with perforated pipe just south of the plant. Water travels 120 feet before reaching groundwater level.
Another question concerned whether the city would monitor existing wells in the area in relation to the operating facility. Department of Ecology representative Lucy J.H. Peterschmidt said it would be the city's responsibility to monitor nearby groundwater activity at all times to ensure quality standards are being met. Fuller added that there's redundancy and back up systems in place to make certain before any water leaves the treatment plant, it has met Class A criterion.
One citizen asked how the project would change the current billing arrangements with the city of Spokane for utilities. Public works director Albert Trip said the city having its own treatment facility will eliminate all payments to Spokane, and citizen can start paying and receiving their bills directly from the city for services, to which the inquirer replied, “The sooner the better.”
According to the project website, construction funds should be secured in early 2009, with building to begin that same year. Start up reclamation plant operations are expected in early 2011.
Cara Lorello can be reached at [email protected]
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