City eyes 500 acres for wastewater site
The Post Falls City Council may decide Tuesday whether to buy about 500 acres on the Rathdrum Prairie to irrigate with treated wastewater.
City voters in August overwhelmingly approved a measure to allow the city to spend $9.5 million to buy up to 1,000 acres of farmland during the next 10 years.
The city wants to irrigate the land with treated wastewater, the same effluent that’s currently dumped into the Spokane River.
The city is considering buying 500 acres south of Hayden Avenue, between Chase and Greensferry roads, and has already put $50,000 toward the purchase to ensure it’s not sold to another buyer. The property is owned by the Satchwell family.
Citizens for the Prairie, a group of mostly neighbors in the area, argued during the election that the 500 acres is too rocky and the effluent would drain straight into the Spokane Valley/Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer. The East Greensferry Irrigation District is worried the effluent could contaminate its five wells in the area.
Post Falls hired a hydro geologist who tested the soil and found that most of it was appropriate for land application. The areas that are too rocky wouldn’t be used for irrigation, city officials said.
The state Department of Environmental Quality, Panhandle Health District and various local conservation groups support the idea of land application and say it is a good use for effluent because the plant roots act as a secondary treatment process. The roots absorb nutrients, such as phosphorus, that remain in treated wastewater.
It could take up to five years before land application begins.
Post Falls is looking for alternatives for using treated wastewater because the federal government is limiting how much effluent can go into the Spokane River. And land application seems to the city like a good solution because unlike soil, the river can’t absorb many of the nutrients left in treated wastewater.
The 6 p.m. Post Falls City Council meeting will be at City Hall, 408 N. Spokane St. For more information, call 773-3511.