PORT ANGELES — The long-awaited Clallam Bay-Sekiu sewer upgrade project could receive two new lift stations by January 2026 after the Clallam County Opportunity Fund Board recommended awarding $940,000 to the project’s latest phase.
The recommendation, provided Thursday, will go to the Clallam County commissioners for their review. The sewer project is a multi-year effort that began in September 2020 to address inflow and infiltration that has caused frequent overflows of the Sekiu and Clallam Bay wastewater treatment plants.
The county owns and operates two wastewater treatment plants and the two associated collection systems located in the Clallam Bay-Sekiu Urban Growth Area. They were installed in 1978 and have been operating continuously since.
The system has seven lift stations and the county has replaced two so far, Sekiu and Lighthouse, said county engineer Ron Garcelon.
After the Clallam Bay and Middle Point lift stations are replaced, there will be three left, Garcelon said.
The project schedule included with the application shows engineering work beginning Aug. 30 and being completed Dec. 31. Then the construction contract is scheduled to be awarded Feb. 28, 2025, with construction beginning April 30, 2025. The project is scheduled to be operational by Dec. 31, 2025.
The application states the project will improve infrastructure that serves the Clallam Bay Fire Hall, the post office, the hospital clinic, North Olympic Library System’s Clallam Bay location and the Clallam Bay School.
Clallam County received state funding in 2019 to begin the Clallam Bay-Sekiu sewer improvements, which had been in the planning stages for years. County staff told commissioners that the Sekiu Airport Road project would have minimal impact on Sekiu’s sport fishing season.
In September 2020, the first phase began along Sekiu Airport Road. It was a one-month project to repair and replace a sewer gravity main and side sewers on a 0.3-mile section of Sekiu Airport Road north of state Highway 112.
________
Reporter Brian Gawley can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or by email at brian.gawley@peninsuladailynews.com.
