The Chronicle, 1/12/1996
The battle between the city of Chehalis and the state Department of Ecology over wastewater discharge into the Chehalis River isn't about to go away, it appears.
What it boils down to is that Chehalis agrees in principle that it needs to further clean up its effluent into the Chehalis River, but not to the degree that the DOE is asking.
The city has a responsibility to its ratepayers to keep the cost of wastewater disposal reasonable and affordable. The DOE has a responsibility to ensure the cleanliness of our environment, including our rivers.
Chehalis says the DOE is not being reasonable in water quality standards it is proposing for the city to obtain renewal of its wastewater discharge permit into the river.
The city strongly objected last year to portions of a draft permit from the DOE. The agency recently submitted a new version.
Apparently the new proposals aren't much better than the old ones. Some of the requirements on reducing certain elements in the discharge are still mind-boggling (read totally absurd and impractical?), says Public Works Department Director Barry Heid.
At some point, the DOE should also pay attention to the economic reality of what it is proposing in the way of tighter standards on effluent. At some point there has to be a balance between cost and environmental considerations.
The DOE should demonstrate clearly to what degree its tougher standards will clean up the river, especially the much discussed stretch between the Twin Cities.
And it seems the DOE did not act in a spirit of cooperation and good faith with the city on this issue when the agency failed to repeat, as it apparently had indicated it would, computer models using different scenarios in evaluating the Twin Cities' stretch of the river. This might have indicated less stringent standards are needed.
As a result, the city council had little alternative but to authorize spending $15,000 of local tax money for its own study of the scenarios, by an independent consultant.
Chehalis officials seem to have determined to fight the DOE's hardball approach by this means and other approaches, such as enlisting the support of local legislators.
The DOE exists and is funded by authority of the Legislature and when legislators begin poking around, the agency usually begins to pay attention.
If that's what it takes to inject some common sense and reasonableness into the project to clean up the river, then by all means the city should proceed.
The issue isn't whether the river needs cleaning up, it's striking a balance and finding practical solutions that have the best chance of achieving measurable results that won't bankrupt the residents of Chehalis and other areas that deal with this issue.
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