Electric cars and sewers interweave in Grand Coulee

What does charging an electric car have to do with treating sewage? Turns out, quite a bit!

The Grand Coulee City Council last week approved amending parts of their municipal code to address how to add electric vehicle charging stations within the city. 

The topic of electric vehicle charging stations comes with nuances in the form of types of charging stations, their electrical requirements, where the spaces are allowed, and restricting other cars from using those parking spaces.

Adding more complication is that council members felt rushed to approve amending the code because it is connected to qualifying for grant money to the tune of $150,000 from the Washington State Department of Ecology to help pay for updating or building a new sewage treatment plant.

The current plant, which Grand Coulee shares with Electric City, is becoming outdated and is in need of repairs or total upgrades in the next few years. 

“It’s like voting on legislation others have tacked things onto,” Councilmember Tom Poplawski said. “I just don’t like the process of adding things to other things because we’re up against the timeframe where we’re losing money.”

City Clerk Lorna Pearce explained to the council that they need to apply for the Department of Ecology funds before March is over to qualify, and that the amended city code needs to be in place in order to apply.

The council discussed waiting a month before amending the code until they understood the amendments further, but ultimately decided to trust the planning commission’s recommendation. The commission includes Councilmember Alan Cain, who said he felt comfortable with the amendments, which ended up passing unanimously.