Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
The City of Palouse has directed its wastewater engineering consultant to focus on a certain area in its quest to solve a state Department of Ecology decree due in December.
Tasked with reducing the temperature of its discharge into the North Palouse River by 2.5 degrees – and eliminating inorganic nitrates – the city hired Varela & Associates from Spokane. On May 8, the city council directed them to focus their efforts on the option of building a seasonal storage tank and winter discharge on 15 acres of city property to use during low-river flow periods.
“That is how we want Varela to spend the most time and energy,” said Palouse Mayor Michael Echanove.
The directive to Varela has financial considerations as well.
“To save planning money to not have to evaluate a second site,” Echanove said. “We believe this option will satisfy the DOE.”
With the focus, Palouse takes a further step to deliver a plan to DOE in seven months to address new permit requirements.
Once a strategy is approved, the city will seek funding.
They have not officially decided on the storage tank option. Varela is expected to report to the advisory committee some time in June.
“It's very common for wastewater plants to make these upgrades as we learn more and gather more data about pollution problems in stretches of water,” said Brook Beeler, spokesperson for DOE.
In total, the city of Palouse, as directed by DOE, will need to reduce nitrogen in the river for six months per year, in the spring and summer – in order to meet the requirements of the total maximum daily load.
The section of the Palouse River which passes through town is on the DOE's 303D list, a federal Cleanwater Act category of waterways which are not meeting water quality standards.
The 303D designation indicates what further is allowed.
“You cannot make a 303D river more compromised,” said Echanove. “There's no waste treatment plant in the world that can meet what's required of us.”
The Palouse facility was built in 1995.
Because the Palouse plant discharges into the Palouse River, the city has a special permit administered through DOE. In July 2015, when the permit came up for review, the temperature of the facility’s discharge water was deemed too high.
The DOE thus directed Palouse to reduce it, as well as cut the nutrient totals from the plant, particularly for nitrogen and phosphate.
The high nutrient levels are a problem because of its feeding of the algae in the river. When algae thrives, it depletes the water’s oxygen.
“The river is already environmentally compromised,” Echanove said. “It has a hard time supporting aquatic life as it is.”
Last fall, Echanove and engineer John Paprouch of Varela spoke at an engineering class at WSU, telling the students about the conundrum.
“I was thinking, we're in the heart of some mighty smart people; someone's gotta have something to make Ecology happy,” said Echanove, who hopes a more efficient, affordable option will be found.
Building a storage tank and lagoon would allow for no discharge into the river during low-flow periods.
“This is a $6 million topic,” said the mayor, noting Varela's estimated cost of the storage tank option.
At a previous meeting March 7, the city's waste treatment plan upgrade committee narrowed its options to achieve this to two. The first would be to build a seasonal storage tank with irrigation discharge – allowable for six months per year – with an area for a non-food consumption crop to be grown from the irrigation. The storage tank would require 8-10 acres with 30 acres needed for the crop.
A second option would be for a seasonal storage tank and winter discharge into a lagoon on a 15-acre site.
Option two was chosen.
Dec. 31 is the deadline for the Palouse City Council to approve and send a plan to DOE to address the permit requirements.
At the March 7 meeting, Paprouch and Dana Cowger, another engineer at Varela, passed out descriptions and estimates for each plan.
Option one was estimated at $5 million, with option two at $6.5 million.
The city has until 2024 to construct whatever needs to be built.
“This is kind of a hard pill for everyone to swallow,” said Echanove.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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