Airway Heights will seek funding
The Airway Heights City Council on Monday unanimously gave the city the go-ahead to pursue funding for its own wastewater treatment plant.
Currently the city of Spokane treats Airway Heights’ sewage, but the contract is up for renegotiation in 2012.
City Manager Chuck Freeman there is “a cornucopia of funding packages.” However, it is a competitive market as other cities vie for the same money.
The city purchased 75 acres of private property in January 2005 for construction of a $35 million facility. The treated wastewater will be used for irrigation and various industrial purposes.
The land, purchased for $310,000, is south of U.S. Highway 2. It is bounded by McFarlane Road on the south, Russell Street on the east, 21st Avenue on the north and Lawson Street on the west.
The city plans to treat the water to a level suitable for reuse at commercial and industrial sites such as Spokane Rock Products and Inland Asphalt. The rock company, for example, could use the reclaimed water to wash rocks.
The treated water also could be used for irrigation and landscaping at the Airway Heights Correctional Center and at county and city parks, Freeman said earlier this year. The state’s Department of Ecology approved the project in the spring.
Freeman also said there will be no “huge tanks” in the neighborhood. Instead, engineers plan to install anaerobic digesters.
These are containers that hold biological products that allow steady-state growth of bacteria producing methane and carbon dioxide. Although still not widely used, digesters, tend to be used for sewage sludge at sewage treatment plants and for animal waste on farms.
Freeman said because of the escalating cost and the water limitations set by Spokane, coupled with the growth of Airway Heights, it’s time to cut the ties. The neighboring towns of Cheney and Medical Lake have their own sewage-collection systems.
“The council realizes for Airway Heights to continue on its path of growth, we have no choice but to do this,” Freeman said.
Currently Airway Heights homeowners’ monthly sewer bills are $37.52. If the new plant is operating in seven years, the bill would be $52.86, with a plant equipped with double the capacity, Freeman said.
Although Freeman said the sum cannot be compared “apples to apples,” if the city stays with Spokane, by 2012 residents would be paying $106 per month. The total takes into account the need to purchase more capacity along with helping pay for Spokane’s river cleanup project.
Freeman said the schedule for the plant depends on the finances. Construction could begin as early as 2007.
Freeman, the former public works director, said the city has been working on the project for 5½ years, and it is at least four years away from completion.
“It’s a long process, and we just kind of are moving at steady pace,” said Councilman Matthew Pederson, who will be sworn in as mayor in December. “It leads directly to the self-sufficiency of our city.”