Area leaders mark water reclamation plant groundbreaking

Business leaders, elected officials and area residents gathered near the building site of the Airway Heights Water Reclamation Plant on Friday to witness the culmination of more than seven years of planning.

Mayor Matthew Pederson addressed approximately 50 people at the ceremonial groundbreaking. “I’m very proud to say that, through the hard work of council, our representatives and our citizens, Phase 1A is fully funded and under construction,” he said.

The plant to be built at McFarland Road and South Lawson Street is estimated to pump between 500,000 and 1 million gallons of water per day back into the West Plains aquifer, which has been in decline. The project will also benefit the Spokane River by eliminating wastewater that has previously been sent to Spokane’s regional treatment facility and on to the river.

Pederson said the reclamation plant was high on the list of shovel-ready clean water projects set to receive federal stimulus funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

According to the Washington state Department of Ecology, 119 applications worth roughly $455 million in projects were received by the agency for only $65.4 million in available stimulus funding.

More than $23 million in funding has been secured from the Ecology Department for Phase 1B of the Airway Heights project, and bidding is set to begin May 20. Pederson said work is being done to supplement second-phase funding with further federal assistance in order to make up a roughly $6 million shortfall.

Planners are looking to determine solid numbers from changes made during Phase 1A of the project. “The bid was about $3 million below our estimated cost,” said Pederson, “so there may also be some rollover into the next phase; we’re not sure yet.”

According to Public Works Director Bryan St. Clair, the project should be fully completed in 2012. In addition to treating waste, the plant will supply treated, reclaimed water to some big users on the West Plains, including the Department of Corrections and possibly Fairchild Air Force Base.

Dennis Fuller, Century West Engineering project manager and lead engineer for the reclamation plant, said more than 100 people will be employed in both phases of the project, as well as many more in the area’s manufacturing sector.

Mayor Pederson said he appreciates the “pain threshold” endured by the city’s citizens and businesses over recent increases in sewage and water rates which boosted funding for the plant. “But this pain, however hard it has been, is only going to be temporary,” said Pederson. “By creating this facility and taking control of our own destiny, we’ll be able to stabilize the rates and, in the end, our hope is to bring those rates back to an affordable living standard for our citizens.”