Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Tekoa’s sewer pipes were the subject of a meeting in Spokane May 8 at the office of the Century West engineering firm after Spokane Riverkeeper, an environmental legal group, sent a letter to the city of Tekoa regarding Hangman Creek and the sewer system.
Attending the Spokane meeting were Tekoa Mayor John Jaeger, Maintenance Superintendent Duane Groom and City Clerk/Treasurer Kynda Browning, along with Century West President Dennis Fuller and Washington State Department of Ecology Environmental Specialist Pat McGuire. Also present was Bart Mihailovich, a representative from Riverkeeper.
At issue is Tekoa’s old, porous sewer pipes allowing groundwater to get into the waste treatment facility, so sewage is not treated as adequately as it should be.
“We felt really good walking out of there,” said Jaeger. “And so did they.”
“I thought the meeting was great,” said Mihailovich. “This is what we do under the Clean Water Act. We sent the letter as part of our legal strategy to protect the Spokane Watershed.”
Wastewater from the Tekoa sewer plant flows into Hangman Creek, which discharges into the Spokane River.
The city of Tekoa has been working with Century West on this problem for several years, replacing sewer pipes in 2005 and 2008. Another 2,700 feet will be replaced this summer.
Next year, yet another 4,400 feet of sewer line is set to be replaced.
Once that is complete, Tekoa officials will be able to see how all of the new lines affect the flow to the plant. From there, changes to the plant can be drawn.
“We can’t make revisions until we know the flow,” said Jaeger. “There’s no reason to run groundwater through the plant.”
McGuire said he also thought the meeting went well.
“I think that Tekoa and Century West did a very good job of explaining the situation they’re in and their plans for the future,” he said.
McGuire indicated the extra water in Tekoa’s treatment plant makes the waste pass through too quickly.
“It’s a biological process,” he said. “And if it goes through too fast, the bugs don’t have a chance to act.”
During the meeting, the Tekoa representatives laid out what they have previously replaced and their plan of substituting almost another half-mile of the old 10x10-inch clay and concrete sewer lines, which they hope will eliminate much of the problem. The new pipes are PVC.
By the end of summer 2014, all of Tekoa’s sewer-pipe replacement is scheduled to be complete.
“They can’t fix the plant if the pipes are still leaking like a sieve,” said McGuire. “They can’t design for it.”
Meanwhile, Ecology is in the process of working on a compliance schedule for Tekoa, relating to the renewal of a National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit. The permits, renewed every five years, are required of any operation which discharges treated wastewater to surface water.
“The city realizes it’s a problem. And they’re working on it,” said McGuire. “Some towns ignore it. And it doesn’t go away.”
Fuller indicated that his company replaced 1,500 feet of Tekoa sewer line in 2005 and another 1,350 feet in 2008.
This summer, they will work with S&L Underground of Bonners Ferry to replace the 2,700 feet.
“I have no reason not to be optimistic that what they’re doing will work,” said Mihailovich.
Fuller said that all of these pipes have excessive rates of infiltration and inflow (INI) which means the groundwater and streamwater enters the system.
“By next year we could have all the high INI pipes replaced,” he said. “Ultimately, the city is going to need to upgrade the treatment plant. But before that, INI reductions to reduce the flow to the plant.”
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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