Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
The city of Palouse has received a $48,113 grant from the state's Community Economic Revitalization Board to help plan upgrades for the town's wastewater treatment plant.
Mayor Michael Echanove and City Clerk/Treasurer Mike Bagott made a presentation in Olympia Nov. 19 to the board.
The grant was approved later that day, and the town will put a 25 percent match on top of that.
Palouse has an agreement with the state Department of Ecology to present a plan in December 2017 for how to meet new parameters for their wastewater discharge permit – which calls for lowering the water discharge temperature of its plant, in order to reduce nutrient levels, which feed algae and in turn, reduce oxygen.
The DOE agreement requires that Palouse submit a plan to address the lower temperature requirement as well as a goal of zero inorganic nitrogen discharge during low river flow months.
Palouse is expected to construct what is necessary and have it in operation by July 2024.
Because of the CERB grant, Palouse now will adjust an application for a $160,000 loan from DOE for planning work, which will involve basic engineering studies about in-flows, capacity, soils and more, to determine a plan to meet the DOE's new standards.
A mayor-appointed six-person advisory committee will work with Echanove as the planning process gets underway.
“We want to explore all the different things that are out there, to find something that works for Palouse, and the DOE, the river and the taxpayers,” said Echanove. “So we want to spend extra money upfront in discovery.”
To aid in the planning, the city hired consultants Varela & Associates of Spokane earlier this year. Much of the CERB grant money will go to them.
“At this point, the money will pay for predominantly time,” said Bagott. “There are no blueprints to be drawn up at this stage.”
“We'll know two years from now what we need to do,” Echanove said. “Until then, it's anyone's guess.”
In August, representatives from DOE held an informational meeting at the Palouse Community Center regarding what is known as the town’s Draft Water Quality Improvement Plan.
Because the plant discharges into the North Fork of the Palouse River, the city has a special permit administered through DOE. Last July, when the permit came up for review, the temperature of the facility’s discharge water was deemed too high.
Thus, the DOE has directed Palouse to reduce the plant’s discharge temperature by 2.5 degrees as well as cut its nutrient totals, particularly for nitrogen and phosphate.
Because the river has been deemed impaired for low-dissolved oxygen, the Clean Water Act requires the town to outline a plan to address the problem.
In November, presenting their case to the CERB board for the grant, Echanove and Bagott emphasized the importance of keeping city sewer and water rates down, so that people who want to move to Palouse can still afford it.
Bagott suggested, however, that rates will likely go up to some degree as design and construction of a solution to the sewer matter progresses.
“There's almost no way that there can't be,” said Bagott.
The CERB grant is the latest of several state grants which have been used in Palouse in recent years.
“Forming partnerships is how we accomplish our objectives in Palouse,” said Echanove.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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