SEQUIM — City officials and the public will have a chance on Tuesday to see the city’s $13 million expansion of its water reclamation facility, which city officials say positions Sequim for residential growth and economic development through 2025.
The completion of the expansion of the facility off Schmuck Road near Washington Harbor and adjacent to Maple View Farm will be marked with a celebratory ribbon-cutting ceremony at 2 p.m. Tuesday.
Sequim Mayor Ken Hays called the expansion project “a good thing for Sequim.”
“Sequim’s going to continue to grow and become a commercial center,” he said.
Transportation to the ribbon-cutting will be provided because of limited parking. The pick-up and return location will be Guy Cole Convention Center in Carrie Blake Park at 202 N Blake Ave.
Clallam Transit will provide transportation to the water reclamation facility beginning at 1:30 p.m.
The two-year expansion project allows the facility to double its Class A wastewater treatment capacity to 1.6 million gallons a day.
Supports growth
“The project itself provides the support for the expected growth,” Hays said.
“The expansion was probably bigger than it needed to be,” he said.
“On the other hand, it has bought us a lot of growth potential over the next decade.”
The project was funded by $3.04 million from the city’s sewer fund, $4.5 million from the state Department of Ecology and $5.5 million from a state revolving fund loan.
The plant has produced Class A water since 1998, when it was considered state-of-the-art in Washington state, and all water leaving the facility can be used for agricultural or other irrigation uses.
By 2006, the city started planning expansion, having reached 85 percent of its wastewater treatment capacity, as required by the state for funding.
Construction on the facility’s expansion started in the summer of 2008 and was recently completed by Bellingham-based Boss Construction general contractors.
The city irrigates Carrie Blake Park and other landscape parkways on West Washington Street and Sequim Avenue using reclaimed water from the reclamation facility.
Expansion for tribe, lab
The expanded treatment plant will position Sequim to extend a sewer line to Blyn’s 7 Cedars Casino, which will allow the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe to expand the casino and add a resort hotel without having to build its own expensive sewage treatment system.
The city is already working with the Marine Sciences Laboratory for the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory — which is operated by Battelle — to provide water and sewer service there by 2012.
That requires a fast-track, less-expensive approach of about $1.3 million to get the water and sewer lines extended about 7,000 feet eastward down West Sequim Bay Road to the lab on acreage fronting Sequim Bay.
Extending line to Carlsborg
To the west, the city is studying the prospect of linking its sewage treatment system to Carlsborg’s commercial core on U.S. Highway 101 and along Carlsborg Road to the north.
Al Chrisman, the reclamation facility’s lead operator who has been with the city since 1983 and has worked at the plant since 1987, said the plant today treats between a low flow of 50 gallons per minute at 5 a.m., rapidly rising to as high as 1,500 gallons a minute by 11 a.m. daily.
Chrisman said because irrigation water is so cheap in the Dungeness Valley, the city has not been successful in selling reclaimed water back to farms and other commercial enterprises.
The issue is the expense of laying pipelines to irrigation sites, he said.
Irrigation eventually
Sequim City Councilman Bill Huizinga said he was confident reclaimed water will eventually be used in part instead of irrigation from the Dungeness River, which faces low flows for spawning salmon during the driest summer months.
“I think something will come up,” Huizinga said.
“At this point, it’s overkill, but down the road, it’s a future planning thing.”
The upgraded facility has a holding tank that can handle peak flows during high storm water events that might otherwise flood the facility.
Treated water is released through an outfall pipe about 1,700 feet out into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, to the north of the facility.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
