SEQUIM — The city’s state-of-the-art water reclamation facility eventually may permit sales of reclaimed water for irrigation, Paul Haines, Sequim’s public works director, to a chamber audience this week.
Haines told about 50 people at a Sequim Dungeness Valley Chamber of Commerce luncheon at SunLand Golf & Country Club conference center Tuesday that both Carlsborg and the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe, which owns the Cedars at Dungeness golf course, are considering using the city’s reclaimed water.
Haines said the city hopes to sell the reclaimed water for irrigation to reduce the amount of water drawn from the Dungeness River.
“In the summer, there is three times more water used than in the winter” for irrigation from the Dungeness River, he said.
“We can reuse the water for a second or a third time.”
City leaders were “very forward-thinking” in upgrading the facility to allow the city to reclaim 100 percent of its wastewater for irrigation and industrial reuse, and biosolids that can be used to fertilize farm crops, Haines said.
Only one other city in the state — Yelm — has a similar facility, he said.
“It’s astonishing to watch how people use the product and see their crops grow,” Haines said.
He said a play field proposed at the reclamation park adjacent to Carrie Blake Park could use reclaimed water.
Transportation district tax
Haines said the city received its first payment of $40,000 in Transportation Benefit District tax revenue on July1.
It is expected that up to $500,000 annually will be generated by the two-tenths of 1 percent sales tax that voters approved in 2009.
Revenue from the city sales tax — which raises sales tax in Sequim from 8.4 percent to 8.6 percent — is earmarked for transportation improvements.
Tax dollars are to go toward such projects as establishing a bike lane on Fifth Avenue from Cedar Street to Old Olympic Highway, and to redesigning and resurfacing River Road from the West Washington Street roundabout to U.S. Highway 101, Haines said.
“One of the council’s goals is to rethink transportation in Sequim,” to make it more accessible to cyclists and pedestrains, Haines said.
Finding and creating more City Hall space for city employees, who are working in tight quarters, is another issue, Haines said.
He added that the city must also look at Carrie Blake Park’s Guy Cole Convention Center and decide whether it should be renovated or torn down.
Four months on job
As he approaches four months on the job — Haines came to Sequim in April from near Chelan — his experience so far has been a “whirlwind adventure,” he said.
He rattled off a long list of duties that come with the job: overseeing city streets, wastewater, drinking water, stormwater, reclaimed wastewater traffic, signs, codes, rates and fees, infrastructure planning, capital projects inspection, state and local regulations and public relations.
Haines said he has more than 30 years of experience as an engineer and has worked as public works director or city engineer in Colorado, Oregon, California and other areas of Washington state.
He had worked with Steve Burkett, now the Sequim city manager, in the early 1970s in Corvalis, Ore., and most recently in the city of Shoreline until 2006, where they both held the same positions they do in Sequim.
_______
Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
