Palouse angles for DOE "approvable" wastewater plan

The City of Palouse nears an end-of-March deadline for its plan to address a new temperature requirement for effluent from its wastewater facility into the Palouse River.

In front of the city are three main deadlines.

First, by March 31, it must submit to the Washington State Department of Ecology an “approvable” plan to reduce its effluent temperature by 2.5 degrees celsius. Second, this plan will need to be executed by 2024. Third, the city will need to eliminate all inorganic nitrates in the effluent by 2031.

For the first task – which Palouse has studied and worked on for the past four years – on Jan. 31, Mayor Chris Cook, City Administrator Kyle Dixon and the city's wastewater engineering consultants went to a meeting in Spokane with DOE Eastern Region representatives.

They presented a version of an “approvable” plan for the March deadline. Discussion followed.

“It wasn't quite up to snuff, so there was more back and forth,” said Ryan Lancaster, communications manager for the DOE Eastern Region.

Palouse had submitted two earlier versions since October.

The next meeting between the parties is set for Feb. 27.