County to get loan from state

The Washington state Department of Ecology won’t loan Spokane County the money it needs to build a new sewage treatment plant – at least not yet.

But Ecology will loan the county $8.5 million to rework its plan for the plant and bring it into compliance with stricter guidelines for Spokane River water quality.

If Spokane County’s new plan is approved by Ecology, it will then be able to borrow more money toward designing and building its treatment plant, said Ecology Communications Director Sheryl Hutchison.

“It’s an opportunity to keep this project alive,” Hutchison said. “Let’s use the money, at least initially, to revise your facility’s plan and address the water quality issues.”

The county needs to sign the loan document by Aug. 16, or it will lose it, she added.

“It’s pretty good on balance,” said Commissioner Kate McCaslin of Ecology’s decision. “At least the loan won’t go away.”

Spokane County had sought a low-interest state loan to build a $100 million sewer plant, which would save the county $15 million over conventional loan rates.

But after initially approving the loan last year, Ecology representatives last month said they couldn’t loan the money because the facility proposal would not qualify for a permit. Commissioners had threatened litigation if Ecology denied the loan altogether.

As it is, developing a new plan to treat the sewage will likely result in a more expensive operation.

The county’s current plan calls for building a plant at the former Stockyards site in east Spokane and discharging treated effluent into the Spokane River. But Ecology has said that it will not give the county the permits necessary to do so because the Spokane River is already too environmentally degraded.

“We need to look at the needs of the entire community, and that includes water quality. We can’t add pollution to a polluted water body,” Hutchison said.

Ecology is now working to determine the river’s “total maximum daily load” – meaning the amount of oxygen-depleting discharges it can handle each day. The TMDL determination is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

Other options the county may explore to meet the TMDL include irrigating land with the effluent or treating it to meet a higher quality standard. Both options would raise the price of the plant, which would treat about 10 million gallons of sewage for the unincorporated county and Spokane Valley each day.

Both jurisdictions are likely to run out of treatment capacity at the city of Spokane’s plant by 2009.

If a new plant isn’t complete by then, the county may have to suspend its program to eliminate septic systems, halt new development or try a combination of the two.

“Spokane County has to be looking at ways to get the water out of the river, and that’s probably appropriate for this day and age,” said Commissioner John Roskelley, who added that he was glad Ecology is living up to its agreement to loan the county money for the project.

“They’re giving us here an option to do some serious study,” Roskelley said.

Commissioner Phil Harris agreed that a new plan is necessary.

“We should not be putting anything else in the river unless it meets standards for potable water,” he said.