Land sought for effluents

John Stypa put the beaker of clear water up to his nose and took a big sniff.

Nothing. Smells just like the water that squirts out of any garden hose.

Stypa shook his head and passed it to his wife, who also was touring the Post Falls Wastewater Treatment Plant on Thursday afternoon to find out what the stink is about in Tuesday’s upcoming election.

Post Falls is asking voters to approve spending $9.5 million to buy up to 1,000 acres of farmland during the next 10 years. The city would irrigate the land with treated wastewater – the same water that Stypa inspected Thursday.

“Do you have any concerns?” Stypa asked Don Ellis, the senior wastewater technician giving tours to the public as part of the city’s information campaign.

Ellis grabbed the beaker and laughed. “Nope. I’d drink this water way before I’d drink water in some Third World countries,” he said.

Yet about 40 neighbors who live near the Hayden Avenue property, which is the first 500 acres that the city wants to buy, aren’t so confident. They worry that the effluent, even though it’s treated, could contaminate their nearby drinking water wells and the Rathdrum Prairie/Spokane Valley aquifer – the sole source of drinking water for more than 400,000 people.

“They can’t tell us down the road what’s going to happen,” said Connie Firkins, who is leading the Concerned Citizens of the Prairie group that has been passing out fliers and buying newspaper ads. “I’m from Kellogg, and look at that mess.”

Firkins said it took government agencies years to find out the dangers of lead-contaminated soil in the Silver Valley, and it could take years to find out the true effects of land application.

Firkins said she isn’t opposed to land application, but she thinks the Hayden Avenue location, between Chase and Greensferry roads, is too rocky.

It gives the group little comfort that the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, which would regulate the land application, and the Panhandle Health District endorse Post Falls’ plan.

“Land application, in general, over the aquifer is good technology,” said Dick Martindale, PHD’s environmental section manager.

Gary Gaffney, a water quality engineer with DEQ, said land application provides another level of treatment for the effluent because the plant roots remove additional nutrients such as phosphorus.

“My guess is that groundwater impacts are going to be minimal, probably not even measurable,” Gaffney said. “It’s an option that’s very successful.”

At the wastewater plant, sewage is separated so the solid waste is removed. The liquid waste is then treated in an ultraviolet process that removes bugs and bacteria. The solid materials are shipped to Montana and made into compost. The treated wastewater is dumped into the river.

The state would require Post Falls to add chlorine to the treated effluent before it’s used for crop irrigation, just for an extra level of protection. The city also would have to increase its monitoring and tests.

The Kootenai Environmental Alliance, The Lands Council, the Upper Columbia River Group of the Sierra Club, and Rachael Paschal Osborn, a prominent public interest water lawyer, all have endorsed Post Falls’ effort to decrease the amount of treated wastewater going into the Spokane River and increase the amount of open space on the prairie.

The East Greenacres Irrigation District opposes the Hayden Avenue site because it is too close to its five water wells. The district manager believes the soil is too rocky, meaning the effluent could drain straight into the aquifer without giving plant roots time to absorb the nutrients.

Post Falls hired a local hydrologist, John Riley, to test the soil and found that the 85 percent of the 500 acres is suitable for land application. The remaining land is too rocky, and the current landowners use it for cow pasture instead of irrigated farmland.

City officials said they don’t plan to use the rocky spots for irrigation and will instead put a double-lined holding pond in the area and turn the rest into open space.

“We take the concerns of the adjacent property owners about potential contamination of their wells very seriously,” said Barry Rosenberg of KEA. “We held off our endorsement until we heard Dr. John Riley concluded that most of the soils in the area are suitable for land application.”

Rosenberg said that the conservation groups are better known for criticizing government agencies for irresponsible behavior. But this time, he said, Post Falls is doing the right thing.

City Administrator Jim Hammond said the idea is to not only use the land for irrigation but to also eventually develop walking trails around the perimeter. He said neighbors should be happy to have open fields instead of 2,500 rooftops and septic tanks, which he said could actually cause more pollution to the aquifer.

More than 1,900 communities, including the University of Idaho and Washington State University, use treated effluent to irrigate parks, golf courses and playing fields.

“Walla Walla onions are irrigated with Walla Walla effluent, and nobody thinks about that,” said local engineer Jim Kimball, who is working with Post Falls on the land application project. “When does it quit being sewage and become a resource? Arizona would do anything to get that effluent. It’s a resource there.”

Hammond and Larkin are upset the opposition is telling people the city plans to spray raw sewage on the prairie. The debate got heated last week when city officials called the opposition fliers “lies” and said the group had violated state and federal campaign laws.

Post Falls election officials decided not to pursue charges if the group fixed the problems. Firkins apologized for the members’ ignorance of the laws. Most of the citizen group members live outside the city limits and can’t vote in Tuesday’s election.

If the measure fails Tuesday, Hammond said the city will back up and form a community group to work on another land application proposal. If that doesn’t happen, then the city must bank on new technology that eventually would make the treated effluent even cleaner, meaning federal agencies would allow more to be dumped into the Spokane River.

Unlike the soil, the river can’t absorb many of the nutrients that remain in treated wastewater. And that’s why the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is limiting the amount of effluent that can go in the river.

“There are few alternatives for dealing with treated wastewater,” Hammond said. “If we wait too long, the land won’t be available.”

If city voters approve the land purchase, residents’ sewer rates wouldn’t increase. Post Falls residents are currently paying off three bonds approved in the late 1980s and early 1990s to build and improve the current wastewater plant. The largest of those payments is set to expire next year. The city wants to extend the debt and keep using the additional sewer rate money to buy the property for land application.

If voters approve the purchase, it could take up to five years before land application begins.