Dayton Faces Sewer Overhaul By 2018

DAYTON - Some major parts of Dayton's wastewater treatment system have been around since 1938, but Public Works Director Jim Costello believes they'd still work fine "if the state hadn't changed the rules on us," he said.

More than 40 concerned citizens attended a special meeting last Monday night to hear from the horse's mouth why Dayton is faced with costly changes to its wastewater treatment plant by 2018.

"The short answer is, the city's wastewater treatment plant is discharging too many nutrients and other pollutants into the (Touchet) river," said Karin Baldwin, who spoke last week on behalf of the Spokane regional office of the Washington State Department of Ecology.

Since 1996, the Touchet River has been on the state's list of impaired waters for fecal coliform bacteria, high temperatures, pH and dissolved oxygen problems.

"This means the Touchet River does not meet state water quality standards because it does not fully protect human health or support fish and other aquatic life," according to a fact sheet issued by the city and handed out at Monday's meeting.

The fault lies not just with Dayton's wastewater treatment plant but also with failing septic systems along the river and use of fertilizer on ag land. Dayton's sewage system, however, is regulated and permitted by the state and is one of the larger polluters on the river, Baldwin said.

"The city of Dayton has worse problems than fish downstream," said resident Dave Schreck, who went on to talk about financial crises in the local school and hospital districts.

Nevertheless Dayton has until December 31, 2018, to stop discharging to the river between the months of May and October each year or face fines from the state.

To accommodate this demand, the city will need to upgrade its sewage treatment plant. Current technology cannot reduce the levels of toxins in the plant's discharge to state's standards, so the new system will have to keep these pollutants out of the river during key fish spawning and hatching periods, according to Pat McGuire, permit manager with the DOE.

The city has a few optionseach with a price tag that may read in the millions.

Dayton could discharge its roughly 250,000 gallons of effluent per day onto agricultural land, which would be roughly equivalent to 40 acres of hay or alfalfa. It could use the discharge, after more stringent treatment processes, to irrigate local parks, golf courses or other public areas.

The city could also, after further treatment, use the effl uent to recharge a wetland area or allow it to soak back into the ground as a groundwater recharge.

Finally, the city could provide appropriate treatment so the discharge could be used for other commercial, agricultural or industrial applications.

To even determine the cost to ratepayers in the city for upgrades to the plant, the city needs to commission a feasibility study, which will cost between $50,000 to $100,000. This study would help city leaders decide on a course of action.

In anticipation of funding this study and the project later on, the city raised sewer rates by a few dollars last month. These additional funds are being held in reserve, Mayor Craig George said.

"About this time next year, we'll hopefully go out for bid on the feasibility study," George said this week. The mayor regrets that Dayton didn't begin saving up for this project five years ago, he said, "but we can't do anything about what's happened in the past. What we can do is start to build the money up slowly."

"We don't need a Cadillac, but we also don't want a Chevrolet," George said. "We know it's not an easy pill to swallow, but we hope to not have to raise rates drastically but incrementally."

The city will also work on developing a program to assist low-income families as rates increase, George said.

"And what if the city says, 'We don't have the money?'" Schreck asked officials Monday night. "You can only get so much blood out of the turnip."

McGuire assured citizens that the state would do its best to help the city fund the required project, but if mandates were not met in time, the city could be fined, he said.

"But we try not to penalize," he said. "It's not like we're going to come in and shut you down."

Dayton's wastewater plant was updated in 1998 and 1999 with a little more than $4 million in renovations, said Costello, who's been public works director for about 16 years.

Included in the update were a new operations building, which is also a lab for doing testing; new headworks for screening and grinding; a new secondary clarifier for sedimentation of solids; a new ultra-violet building, which disinfects for bacteria using lights instead of chlorine; new drying beds for solids; and a bunch of new wiring and pipes, Costello said.

From the old plant, Dayton still uses its original operations building where breakers are situated in addition to a meeting room and the pumps, piping and boiler in the basement; the old anaerobic (without air) digester, a clarifier and a trickling filter.

"We're meeting permit requirement now," Costello said. "But they've tightened the parameters. If they hadn't done that, we'd probably still be okay."