By JAMES EIK
Staff Reporter
The Airway Heights wastewater treatment plant is slowly building up to its full operating capacity.
Initially projected to start accepting flows Oct. 6, the plant is now treating water at a low capacity.
City Manager Albert Tripp said the plant is accepting a low level of wastewater, treating it, and then sending the treated water through its pipes to Spokane's regional plant, where the city currently sends its wastewater.
“The end result of the wastewater we're treating is they're receiving wastewater that's a lot cleaner, because it's processed at a wastewater treatment facility,” he said.
During this time, crews at the plant can adjust treatments for the wastewater at a low capacity. Over the next month or so, flows will slowly increase, and further tweaks will be made. It's all done toward the goal of helping to prevent problems once the plant starts running at its projected capacity.
“It's to help stabilize the process,” Tripp said. “The process is undergoing its startup and until that's stabilized, we'll continue to divert those flows to the Spokane plant.”
Tripp said there haven't been any hang-ups with the project, and that it is coming in under budget.
The plant will have a grand opening in the spring of 2012, once everything has been finalized, to which the public will be invited.
“Once the treatment plant is stabilized, we'll cut off the diversion to the Spokane plant,” Tripp said. “All of the aquifer recharge will occur at this facility.”
In an earlier interview, plant supervisor Jeff Cochrane said roughly 500,000 to 600,000 gallons of water will be sent from the plant to help recharge the city's aquifer. Some would be sent out for irrigation use, and the rest will filter back down to the aquifer.
The plant will have three operators, including Cochrane. All other staff members have been with the plant since the beginning of the year, Tripp said, except one member who will be hired sometime this month.
Construction on the plant began in 2009, following a series of public meetings. Part of the funding for the project came through the American Recovery Reinvestment Act of 2009.
This will be the first wastewater plant for Airway Heights.
The plant is a part of a change in the city's water structure. An agreement with the state's Department of Ecology made in September of this year set Dec. 31 as the beginning date for the city to lower its usage of the Parkwest well. The city is expected to lower its water rate from 550 acre-feet of water per year to 400 acre-feet next year with a further reduction to 200 acre-feet in 2013 before shutting down its usage of the well.
To offset the loss of water, the city is constructing a new well, which will have a greater pumping capacity than Parkwest. The well will be operational in spring of 2012. two years ahead of schedule.
James Eik can be reached at [email protected].
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