Treatment plant upgrades estimated at $10.5 million

City leaders in Grand Coulee met with their engineers Monday to learn about options being recommended for upgrades to their wastewater treatment plant, estimated to cost $10.5 million.

The good news is that the Dept. of Ecology has already stated it can fund the project.

"You're in a real interesting situation," Gray and Osborne Engineer Nancy Wetch told the city council, noting that she's never seen funding promised without an application even submitted.

But funded doesn't mean free.

Wetch met with the city council and mayor, the city's wastewater treatment employees, the mayor and one council member from Electric City, and a few citizens in a two-hour session to explain more than most want to know about just how a sewage treatment plant works, why it's so expensive, and what it might cost city customers.

That depends, and she advised the city to start a conversation with DOE on how they will categorize the two cities that use the plant and what combination of loans or grants they'll qualify for.

Grand Coulee, with a median household income of $38,584 would qualify for some grant (free) money under a "hardship" qualification. Electric City, with a MHI of $56,727, would not. The former contributes 63% of the plant's workload, the latter 37%. What combination of grants and loans might be possible if applied for jointly?

"One of the questions becomes, what is ecology going to do with this?" Wetch said.

The plant, which currently processes Grand Coulee's and Electric City's wastewater at an average of 127 gallons a minute, is getting old. Built in 1985, many of its parts are now hard or impossible to come by, out of spec with modern requirements and inefficient to the point of costing money on a regular basis.

When the treated liquid is dried out of the material, what's left are biosolids that have to be hauled off to a disposal site, in this case one in Douglas County that is the largest in the state. Liquid is heavy, so getting as much out as possible saves on freight. One of Wetch's many recommendations is to install a large screw that is designed to squeeze it out, not just let it dry in the sun, which doesn't happen much this time of year at all.

Keeping as much clean water out of the system in the first place, so you don't have to process is it, would be another big savings. Currently, a lot is leaking into the sewer pipes. Fixing that is another project the city needs to work on, with 90% of its pipes made likely made of clay or concrete and leaking every few feet in many places.

Wetch laid out possible funding scenarios.

Rates in Electric City could have to go up between $13 and $27 a month to cover the financing. Grand Coulee's could eventually go up by $27-$36, including fixing the leaky collection system.

All of that is with a 12.5% inflation rate built in, she said, because they're seeing inflation hit wastewater systems higher than much of the economy.