PORT ANGELES — The Olympic Environmental Council is appealing the city of Port Angeles’ plan to get control of its sewage overflow problem.
The appeal, filed Tuesday, challenges the Port Angeles Planning Commission’s Jan. 12 decision to approve a shoreline substantial development for the approximately $40 million project.
The City Council will hear the appeal, said City Attorney Bill Bloor. A date has not been set.
Construction to proceed
City Manager Kent Myers said he doesn’t think the appeal will affect construction related to the project, which is expected to start later this year.
The group, joined by Port Angeles resident Tyler Ahlgren, protests the use of an approximately 5-million-gallon tank, which the city purchased from Rayonier last November, to temporary store untreated sewage and stormwater during heavy rain.
They said the city instead should focus on disconnecting stormwater from the sewer system, which is the main cause of overflows.
“If stormwater wasn’t going in there, it wouldn’t be a problem,” said Darlene Schanfald, Olympic Environmental Council spokeswoman.
Schanfald said she thinks that disconnecting stormwater from the sewer system could be done within a year.
It isn’t that simple, city staff have said.
More expensive
About 30 percent of the sewer system also carries stormwater, and disconnecting the two would be more disruptive and come with a higher price tag than using the tank, they have said.
Steve Sperr, the former city engineer, estimated that disconnecting the stormwater pipes and roof downspouts from the sewer system would cost more than $60 million.
The city does plan to conduct a stormwater disconnect project along the south side of First Street downtown this year.
That project, projected to cost between $1.5 million and $2 million, will be paid for by the National Park Service.
It’s intended to offset the contribution of sewage from the Lower Elwha Klallam reservation as part of the dam removal project.
Kathryn Neal, city engineering manager, told the Planning Commission earlier this month that it would be too costly for the city to solve its overflow problem by disconnecting stormwater from the sewer system elsewhere.
“I think this [use of the tank] is the most cost-effective solution,” she told commissioners.
Won’t stop overflows
Simply disconnecting roof drains from the sewer system also won’t be enough to stop overflows, Glenn Cutler, city public works and utilities director, has said.
The state Department of Ecology has required the city to reduce its overflows from between 30 and 100 per year to no more than four on average by 2016.
Neal told the Planning Commission that, with the tank, the city would have an average of 1.3 overflows a year.
Ahlgren — also a member of the Victoria group People Opposed to Outfall Pollution — said the city could probably come into compliance with the mandate by disconnecting only some of the stormwater flow from the sewers.
Cutler and Myers said they couldn’t comment more on the city’s plans because of the appeal.
OEC was one of the seven environmental groups that appealed Nippon Paper Industries USA’s shoreline permit for its biomass energy project last month. The council sided with the Planning Commission, which granted the permit.
OEC is also a party in appealing that permit to the state Shoreline Hearings Board.
City’s project
As part of the city’s project, it plans to eliminate each of its four overflow pipes and switch over to a single discharge pipe formerly used by Rayonier Inc. to release its effluent.
That pipe is longer and stretches farther out of Port Angeles Harbor than the pipe the city currently uses.
The project is expected to take about four years to complete.
Design of the first phase is anticipated to be complete by early next month, with work beginning in the late summer to slide new sewer pipes through the city’s industrial waterline.
They will be put through the waterline at two locations: on the Waterfront Trail north of the Red Lion Hotel and at the intersection of Oak Street and Railroad Avenue.
Exit at mill site
The pipes would exit the waterline at the former Rayonier mill site, where they will be placed in shallow berms across the property and connect with the tank.
The tank — which the city purchased along with nearly 12 acres of the mill site for $995,000 — will be connected to the city’s wastewater treatment plant, adjacent to the property.
The second phase of the project involves the installation of new gravity sewer mains and a new pump station and force main downtown, as well as improvements to the city’s wastewater treatment plant.
The city is using loans to pay for the project, which will ultimately be paid back through a wastewater utility fee.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
