Phosphorus pact step to cleaner river

It may be too late to avoid a temporary halt of construction in Spokane County.

But county leaders say the completion and likely approval of a new state agreement – expected this week – to reduce phosphorus in the Spokane River will allow them to move forward with a new wastewater treatment plant and possibly avoid a construction moratorium in the coming years.

The county has 30,000 sewer customers north and east of Spokane. It expects to run out of sewer capacity at the city of Spokane’s wastewater plant in late 2012. The earliest a new plant could be online is just months before that date.

If the plant is delayed or growth is faster than expected, construction may be halted in locations served by county sewers.

“We know it’s tight,” said Spokane County Commissioner Todd Mielke. “We’re looking at every possible method of construction to expedite construction but still meet our objective.”

Forced by new guidelines on phosphorous pollution that will be presented by the state Department of Ecology today, wastewater treated at the county’s new plant would be among the cleanest in the country, county leaders say.

“Our attitude is we anticipate using the most advanced technology anywhere in the United States,” Mielke said.

High levels of phosphorus in Long Lake are causing an influx of algae, which deplete oxygen from the water, making survival more difficult for fish. Large blooms of algae have become common in the lake.

Government officials and business representatives will meet this morning to finish 16 months of negotiations on how to reduce phosphorous pollution. The plan will require river polluters, including wastewater treatment plants, Kaiser Aluminum and Inland Empire Paper, to attempt to reduce phosphorus in treated wastewater to the same level of phosphorus as would be in the river naturally. In 20 years, dischargers would have to meet that goal. However, the goal could be changed in 10 years.

Inland Paper is owned by the Cowles Co., which also owns The Spokesman-Review.

The state Department of Ecology estimates the natural level of phosphorus in the river is 10 micrograms for each liter of water. One pound is equal to about 450 million micrograms.

Sierra Club officials say the goals in the plan are obtainable and should be mandates.

“There are some pretty significant concerns that are present in the document as well as ambiguity that make it difficult to stand behind the agreement,” said Rick Eichstaedt, an attorney who represents the Sierra Club. “We’re going to be going for 10 years with unenforceable standards, and in 10 years one of the options is to actually weaken the standards.”

Spokane Deputy Mayor Jack Lynch said the city is committed to reducing 90 percent of its current phosphorous emissions. Despite that investment, he said, it will be difficult to meet the goal without spending “untold” millions.

In 2003, the county completed studies for a new plant at a former stockyard site near Freya Street and Trent Avenue. The plant was put on hold when Spokane Valley incorporated and in 2004, when the state announced the need for stricter limits on phosphorous pollution.

Bruce Rawls, county utilities director, said the stockyard is still the preferred site for a county plant. It will cost about $100 million, which will be paid by ratepayers.

Before plans for Spokane County’s proposed plant were halted by the state, the county expected it would release about 200 micrograms of phosphorus per liter.

“We’re pretty confident that we’re going to get less than 50 (micrograms) and maybe substantially less than 50, but we don’t know how much,” Rawls said.

If dischargers can’t meet the 10 microgram standard through technology improvements, as city and county leaders expect, the plan will allow them to make up the difference by reducing phosphorus in other ways. For instance, the city plans to divert treated wastewater to irrigate golf courses to prevent it from directly entering the river.

The plan also allows the county to get credit for reducing the number of active septic tanks. Rawls said modeling shows that hooking up homes on septic tanks to sewers would reduce phosphorous pollution enough to offset what the county won’t be able to achieve with new technology.

Eichstaedt said the county shouldn’t get credit for septic tank removal because the program has been in the works for years. He also questioned the county’s modeling about the effects it has on phosphorus.

“It’s incredibly difficult to assess how much phosphorus from septics is actually going into the river,” Eichstaedt said.

Mielke said replacing septic tanks with sewers will cost millions.

“The ratepayers would be offended if they were going to spend all that money to do that, and then they don’t get credit for the beneficial impact it has on the river,” Mielke said.