City of Pullman forced to haul away biosolids from sewer plant

PULLMAN — The City of Pullman has been forced by the Washington Department of Ecology to haul biosolids from a sewer plant, declared an emergency.

The emergency was declared Monday, Sept. 11, by current Pullman Mayor Glenn Johnson. He declared to begin trucking the material without going the normal contracting process. The Department of Ecology (DOE) has failed to review the annual permit to trucking the biosolids to the local farms to then be used as fertilizer by the farmers, City officials say. The backup plan, which the city came up with, is to haul materials from Pullman to areas in Lewiston and Spokane, where facilities are located.

The new emergency order put in place by Johnson will allow for city officials to now hire truckers to begin the haul immediately and effectively.

Daily, the sewer plant, located in Pullman, can produce around nine tons of biosolids.

The pricepoint for the move can cost the city around half a million dollars. Officials also say that due to the DOE failing to review the permit, this can have an impact on: sewer rates, city budgets, and Washington State University (WSU) as a whole.

City officials in Pullman believe that the city will not be able to biosolids to local farms for fertilizer use for at least the rest of the year.