PORT ANGELES — The Clallam County Public Utility District took the next step Monday toward providing Carlsborg with a sewer system.
District commissioners approved Phase 2 of a contract with BHC Consultants of Seattle, essentially telling the firm to convert a feasibility study to a facility plan.
That plan, in turn, will lead to a preliminary design, cost estimate and possible local utility district for the village.
Double importance
The plan is doubly important:
âñ First, it would produce hard numbers for a project to replace Carlsborg’s failing on-site septic systems.
âñ Second, it might convince the Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board to lift its finding that the Carlsborg Urban Growth Area is invalid.
Until then, the only commercial building the board will permit must produce no added load to existing septic systems.
The PUD commissioners and Clallam County commissioners hope to collaborate on the venture and have used grants to come this far.
Another grant will pay the entire $118,380 cost of the facility plan, said Douglas Nass, PUD general manager.
The plan will include:
âñ Alternatives for the system, including a regional concept with Sequim and two sites for treatment facilities in or near Carlsborg.
âñ Preliminary design of a system to produce Class A water for non-potable uses such as recharging the Dungeness River aquifer.
âñ Sludge management.
âñ Cost estimates, including forming a local utility district.
âñ Presenting the plan to the public.
The plan also will use up to 20 parcels in the Carlsborg Urban Growth Area — including residential, multifamily and commercial lots — to measure how a sewer system would benefit them, including uses and market values.
âñ A financing plan.
PUD Commissioner Hugh Haffner, noting that Clallam County underwrote the extension of Port Angeles city sewers east to North Masters Road, said the county should consider spending an equal sum — $6 million — on the Carlsborg project.
“There’s no harm in asking,” said Commissioner Will Purser.
The Puget Sound Partnership that has been charged with cleaning up northwest Washington waters has made Carlsborg’s failing septic systems a high priority, as had the state Department of Ecology.
Those agencies might help the PUD and county find grants for the system, commissioners said.
However, the proposal under study is for a “backbone” system, not one that will reach every lot in Carlsborg at its inception.
Commissioner Ted Simpson cautioned: “We’re going to have to come up with an awful lot of financial support for this system.”
________
Reporter Jim Casey can be reached at 360-417-3538 or at jim.casey@ peninsuladailynews.com
