By KAYLA CAMENZIND
The new regional wastewater treatment facility in Riverdale that has been under construction for two years is projected to be finished before the end of the year. The approximate $37 million joint project between the cities of Raymond and South Bend was approved in December of 2009 after extensive planning with the Department of Ecology (DOE) and the local Regional Wastewater Coordinating Committee. The project is funded jointly by the two cities, with Raymond providing $22,577,177 and South Bend $14,798,650.
Leading up to the project, the cities of South Bend and Raymond were under fire from the DOE and were subject to a $45 million lawsuit under the Clean Water Act by the Waste Action Project. The DOE, limiting the city to two new sewer hook-ups per year, placed a moratorium on the South Bend in 1999. In a letter to the elected officials and residents of South Bend found on the City Hall website, Chairman Eric deMontigny of the local Regional Wastewater Coordinating Committee in 2009 explained that the moratorium “stifled development in our community, certainly contributing to our poor local economy.” DeMontigny also explained that the City of South Bend alone was charged with 29 violations in 2009 by the DOE for unsanitary discharge into the Willapa at $27,500 for each violation, equaling almost $800,000 in one year.
Greg Zentner from the Washington DOE explained: “Every treatment plant, domestic wastewater treatment plant, needs to remove 85% of pollutants that come in the front door as a baseline. . . but there are some instances where the plants need to do better than that to protect the water body that the plant is discharging to. So there hasn’t been an across the board change, but in this particular case, we’re requiring them to do better to improve the Willapa River. . .That was the main thing wrong with both plants [in South Bend and Raymond]; it was simply that there were new requirements to meet and both facilities needed to upgrade to meet them and they found it more economical to join forces to do that. . . Both plants were at the end of their useful lives.”
South Bend and Raymond considered options for improving its existing facility, but a regional option offered an approximate 30% percent savings on operating costs for the two cities. As deMontigny outlined in his 2009 letter, “By pooling our resources with the City of Raymond, we are able to achieve better economies of scale. Large communities and sewer districts have substantially lower sewer rates than we have now. They are able to do so by pooling their resources.” The cities hired an independent panel of experts with money from a grant to complete an analysis of the available options before deciding on the regional facility option.
Because of the economic recession at the time of conception of the project, the cities received competitive bids from contractors and enough grant money to cover approximately 40 percent of the costs under various government stimulus programs. In total, the project received almost $16 million in grants. The other 60 percent of the project is funded by various government loans, which equated to approximately $21 million at interest rates such as 2 percent, 1.1 percent, and 2.125 percent, and are to be paid off between 20-40 years.
Rates have increased to pay off the loans. At the time of conception of the project, sewage bills in Raymond were $75 bi-monthly, but over the last four years incremental increases have resulted in a current bi-monthly bill of $125. In South Bend, beginning rates were approximately $43 per month, and are $70 per month today. South Bend City Treasurer Dee Roberts acknowledged that costs for South Bend have been less than expected, resulting in a lower rate increase. “This has decreased, but that does not mean that there is not going to be additional rate increases in the future.”
The new facility will be a conventional activated sludge facility, which treats the water through a biological process breaking down waste and converting it to biological cell mass, leaving the water at a safe discharge level to drain into the Willapa River.