Sewer plant near-future operations uncertain

It’s not certain exactly how the wastewater treatment plant that serves the roughly 2,000 citizens of Grand Coulee and Electric City will keep operating after nine days from now.

That’s when its current operator will retire. Currently, Grand Coulee has no one to replace that employee, and the city has been in talks to outsource operating the plant to an independent company on a contractual basis.

That’s if the union representing employees will allow it, or if the contractor can justify that wage scale.

All of that is uncertain, even unlikely, in the time left before Aug. 25. But the union agreement specifies the city can use outside labor sources in case of an emergency, according to City Clerk Lorna Pearce. A meeting on that question has been scheduled between the city and the union.

“Trust me,” she said Tuesday, “we all want to keep things flowing in the right direction.”

The plant processes 184,000 gallons of waste a day in the space it occupies on Bureau of Reclamation land in the USBR’s industrial area along SR-155 overlooking Crescent Bay on Lake Roosevelt.

The contractor, SJ Environmental, has been in talks with both Grand Coulee and Electric City about running the plant and doing other related work.

Those talks are taking place at a time when Grand Coulee suddenly found itself short-staffed at the facility as its lead man there took a new job as Electric City’s public works director.

Operations of the plant are ostensibly overseen by a joint board made up of council members from each city, but the plant is run by Grand Coulee employees. It’s mayor and council have been reconsidering whether they need two employees to run it.

The Grand Coulee/Electric City Wastewater Treatment Committee already considered that question at their last quarterly meeting and voted to recommend hiring an additional employee rather than contract the work out.

Grand Coulee’s city council voted July 18 to ask SJ Environmental about a short-term solution while the city considers long-term options.

That decision came at the same city council meeting when City Foreman Dennis Francis presented industry statistics showing that 1.49 full-time workers are needed at such a plant. Francis argued for hiring another worker, stating the current operator was getting frustrated with the situation.

“It’s been five months and we haven’t got it resolved,” Francis said. “… In all respects, it makes sense for the city to fill the open position rather than contract out.”

At the same time, the city is planning a $10.5 million upgrade to the 38-year-old plant.

Mayor Paul Townsend said the prospect of more automation could mean fewer specialized employee hours might be needed.

By Aug. 3, the plant operator, Gary Abbott, had notified the city of his resignation, effective Aug. 25.

“I am not sure exactly what’s going to happen with the running of the wastewater treatment facility after Aug. 25,” Mayor Diane Kohout told her Electric City Council last week, with SJ Environmental’s Sam Snead attending.

Snead said he still needed 30 to 45 days to get a qualified worker for the position.

“There’s still a lot of logistics that need to be worked out,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting a two-week notice this fast.”