City hears options on wastewater facility site
SANDPOINT — When it comes to the city’s wastewater treatment plant, the biggest question is, should it stay or should it go?
The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality recently awarded the city a $65,000 wastewater planning grant to prepare a wastewater planning study. The purpose of the project is to evaluate the current wastewater treatment system and identify needed improvements to address new National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit requirements by the Environmental Protection Agency. In order to meet new permitting requirements, the city will need to upgrade the existing plant, structure a new plant, or a combination of both.
Steve James with J-U-B Engineers, the firm contracted by the city for the facility plan update, gave an overview to City Council members during Wednesday’s meeting of the options open to them as far as the location of the plant. One, he said, is the plant could stay in its current location on the bank of the Pend Oreille River adjacent to War Memorial Field. Located in a residential neighborhood, it is not the ideal spot, James said. If it was moved to the city-owned Baldy Mountain Road property, there would be plenty of room to build. Being three miles from the existing site, however, it would require nine miles of pipe installation — three pipes at three miles each.
“That has a fairly high price tag,” James said, adding the number for pumping and piping would be in the $20-$30 million range.
To make it work on the Baldy site, the city would need to build everything “right now,” he said. At the existing location, the city could “phase things in slowly.”
The goal, he said, when making a decision, is to balance water quality with affordability. Water quality is important when it comes to protecting the Pend Oreille River. Affordability and economic viability are just as important, he said.
“If we can balance both those things, then that leaves the public support and trust you really need in order to move this project forward,” James said.
The city’s advisory committees have been “instrumental” in relaying to the design team what the public needs are and what’s important to the city, James said. The Community Advisory Committee informs the Technical Advisory Committee on what they find most important, he said, and then the technical group looks at the technology available for the facility. The technical group then works with the engineers to help find options that make the most sense, James said.
The next steps, James said, are to continue evaluating and bring periodic updates to council, bringing stronger recommendations as the process evolves.
Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.