Cynthia Wall is in Rosalia to meet with Mayor Ken Jacobs. Cynthia works for the Washington state Department of Ecology, writing permits for wastewater treatment plants in small communities. Cynthia read about my sewage treatment plant obsession and asked me along to Rosalia to see firsthand the challenges small towns face when it comes to sewage treatment.

Cynthia is a trim energetic woman of 44 who loves her job. “Small communities need a lot of hand-holding – and I don’t mean that in a bad way,” she says.

It takes us a half-hour to drive to Rosalia’s City Hall, where we meet up with the mayor and drive a few blocks to Rosalia’s sewage lagoon. Ken, 64, grew up in Spokane, graduated from Lewis & Clark High School and then moved to this town of 650 to farm.

Ken unlocks the gate to the sewage lagoon. It sits on three acres and looks like an old-fashioned swimming hole. It doesn’t smell. Most small towns use sewage lagoons. Most are hopelessly out of date. And so most towns face major sewage treatment upgrades to meet state standards for water quality. These upgrades are so expensive that some small towns could face bankruptcy or die altogether.

The clay liners in Rosalia’s lagoon were put in place in the 1960s, and the dechlorination system dates from 1985. The treatment system discharges into a small creek that flows 15 miles downstream to Rock Lake. Turtles, ducks, geese and other birds live at the lagoon. As we walk, we see a tiny bird in distress, chirping in a way that sounds like help me, help me.

Cynthia carefully lifts the bird into her hand. Ken finds a box for the bird in a tool shed. He notices a leaking pipe in the lagoon’s pipe system. He fixes it. He’s one of the town’s maintenance men, too.

We drive back to a small office in City Hall where Ken and Cynthia outline Rosalia’s sewage treatment options. A higher-tech plant would require an operator. Projected cost: $8 million to $9 million.

“Even if we could find eight to nine million dollars, it would be impossible,” Ken tells me. The town’s entire annual budget is approximately $1 million.

He and Cynthia discuss an engineering firm’s proposed wastewater wetlands project for Rosalia. Wastewater would be applied to an engineered wetland where the plants take up the nutrients. Approximate cost: $4 million.

“There might be some grant money for some of that,” Cynthia says.

Sewer and water rates in Rosalia run $51 a month. They will go up, regardless of which option is chosen. Public meetings will be held this fall with residents. Cynthia will be at the meetings. “I’ll take the heat,” she says. She doesn’t mind.

Ken attended an Association of Washington Cities meeting recently. “I was telling them about our lagoon system. I said we have a good working relationship with Ecology. They all said, ‘Huh?’ ”

Ken and Cynthia work well together because they share common goals. Both want Rosalia to thrive. Both believe in the value of clean water.

“I’m not a huge tree-hugger by any stretch of the imagination,” Ken tells me. “But any time we can improve the environment, we should do it.”

Rosalia has until 2014 to meet water quality standards. Can it do this without bankrupting the town? Will the mayor and the ecology regulator remain on good terms and get this done? These questions are not cliffhangers for most citizens who flush sewage treatment issues from their minds – until their utility bills increase dramatically.

The day after our trip to Rosalia, Ken called Cynthia to inquire about the baby bird. It turned out to be a coot, severely dehydrated, abandoned by mom and dad. A Spokane veterinarian took it in. Ken picked out a name for the bird: Little Lagoon.