PORT ANGELES — City Hall was notified Friday that it will soon receive a big check from the state Department of Ecology — $10 million in low-interest loans to begin work controlling its sewage overflow problem.
But because the project is being appealed by its opponents, that check will have to be left uncashed for now.
Glenn Cutler, city public works and utilities director, said he can’t put the project out for bid until the appeal — filed by the Olympic Environmental Council and Port Angeles resident Tyler Ahlgren — is resolved. A request for bids was to be released in May or June.
Cutler said he doesn’t expect to be able to do that for another six to eight months if the appeal makes its way to the state Shoreline Hearings Board.
That will put work, expected to start this fall with the installation of new sewer lines, on hold and make it much more difficult to meet Ecology’s 2016 deadline for completion of the project, he said.
“I’m disappointed that we can’t move forward on this project,” Cutler said.
The project was ranked the highest out of the 17 granted the loans this year in the state.
Darlene Schanfald, the environmental council’s Rayonier mill cleanup coordinator and representative on the appeal, said the group will take the issue to the state hearings board if necessary.
That may come sooner than Cutler estimated since the City Council is considering a policy change that will end council-level appeals of conditional-use permits for development on the shoreline. The city’s Planning Commission approved such a permit, the focus of the appeal, for the project.
The proposed policy, staff say, isn’t intended to target the appeal but rather is a way to fulfill the council’s desire to not hear appeals. But the move would result in the appeal being bumped to the state — after a review from Ecology.
Targeting sewers
Since the environmental council intends to take the appeal that far anyway, the policy change would allow the appeal process to be finished sooner — and reduce the delay for awarding a bid on the project.
Schanfald, a Sequim resident, said the group is appealing the project — which would mainly involve using a nearly 5-million-gallon storage tank to temporarily store untreated effluent during overflow events — because it thinks the city should instead focus on removing stormwater from the sewers.
Asked how that should be done, she said the city could merely fix leaks in the sewer pipes where ground water infiltrates and expressed doubt that the city even has a combined sewer, where stormwater and sewage both travel through the same pipe.
“I don’t think it’s piped; I think it leaks in,” she said.
“There isn’t a combined system. It’s the leaking.”
Cutler acknowledged that ground water does leak into the sewer but said he was surprised to hear Schanfald claim the city doesn’t have a combined sewer and stormwater system through parts of town.
“I am just absolutely amazed for her to make a statement that she doesn’t think we have a combined sewer overflow system or problem,” he said.
City staffers have said about 30 percent of the city’s sewer system was designed to — and still does — carry stormwater. That stormwater causes the sewer system to overflow into Port Angeles Harbor during heavy rainfall.
Cutler said the combined sewer and stormwater system, built before the 1960s, is the major contributor to sewage overflows.
Ahlgren said in an e-mail that he doesn’t think the city has a combined sewer but couldn’t be reached Saturday for additional comment.
A stormwater project on First Street downtown, which will begin this week, will involve disconnecting some stormwater from the sewer system.
That project is meant to offset the addition of sewage from the Lower Elwha Klallam reservation.
The sewage overflow elimination project is anticipated to cost $40 million.
It is being funded by low-interest loans from the state that are being repaid by utility rate payers.
The fee, started in 2005, is $14.95 per month.
The city increases it every year by $2 plus the rate of inflation.
It will continue increasing at that rate until 2015, when it is anticipated to reach $26.40 per month. The rate won’t expire for another 20 years.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
