City of Palouse turns focus on zero wastewater discharge

The City of Palouse is moving ahead on the April 2019 deadline to present a plan for changes to its wastewater treatment system to the state Department of Ecology.

Last fall, after learning that plans to build two wastewater lagoons for storage and winter discharge into the Palouse River could later be subject to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) limits, the city settled on a plan to avoid the river altogether.

Mayor Michael Echanove and the city council have since directed consultants Varela and Associates to focus on a plan to build storage capacity and a land application with evaporation.

The...