PORT ANGELES — Clallam County has authorized $20,000 in contingency funds to study the soil in Carlsborg to revise a plan to put a sewer there.
Commissioners on Tuesday passed a resolution authorizing BHC Consultants to hire a subcontractor to dig test pits and perform an infiltration study for potential percolation ponds at the Clallam County Public Utility District’s Carlsborg Operations Center at 110 Idea Place.
The county and PUD are partners in the proposed Class A sewer and wastewater treatment facility in the unincorporated urban growth area west of Sequim.
Preliminary estimates put the cost of the project between $15 million and $17 million. The county has already committed $4 million.
The PUD would operate the sewer if the county follows through with building it.
County officials said the infiltration study is needed to finalize the plan.
“An approved facilities plan will be an important step in reaching compliance with the growth management hearings board, which will allow us to lift interim controls,” said Clallam County senior planner Carol Creasey.
“The infiltration study is needed to make some final revisions to the draft facilities plan.”
Development has been tightly restricted in Carlsborg since April 2008, when a Growth Management Act hearings board found the urban growth area to be noncompliant with state law because it lacked adequate infrastructure.
A group of property owners has testified repeatedly in recent years that they don’t want a sewer because of the expense. Some urged commissioners to abolish the 12-year-old urban growth area altogether in favor of rural zoning.
Costs to individual property owners have yet to be determined.
Meanwhile, business owners have said they need a sewer in order to lift interim zoning restrictions so they can expand.
Economic studies have found that Carlsborg supports more than 1,000 jobs.
Public health officials said existing septic systems are contributing to nitrate pollution in the porous aquifers of the Dungeness Valley.
Bryan Frazier, president of Citizens for the Preservation of Carlsborg, has repeatedly said there is no evidence that septic systems are polluting the groundwater.
The project took a step forward last month when the county approved the use of rural economic development funds to pay back a $10 million state loan to build the sewer.
The PUD was awarded the $10 million, 0.5 percent-interest Public Works Trust Fund loan in May.
The state loan has a five-year deferral and can be repaid over 30 years.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
