By David Wilkins, The Aberdeen Daily World , 8/29/2001
The City of Aberdeen will receive a $5.6 million low - interest loan from the state Public Works Trust Fund for the next phase of improvements to its aging wastewater treatment plant.
The loan won't keep sewer rates from going up, but Public Works Director Larry Bledsoe said this morning that the city probably will be able to limit the increase for the average householder to about $3 more per month.
"The money isn't available until after the state Legislature approves the public works funding and the governor signs it, which will happen during the next session," Bledsoe said. "In the past it's been kind of a formality. So we should be getting the money about next April or May, and then construction will take about a year."
The city's treatment plant is more than 20 years old and will need to be replaced within the next several years. City officials estimate the cost of a new plant at $75 million to $125 million.
The improvements to the existing plant were mandated by a 1998 consent decree that resolved a lawsuit brought by the Friends of Grays Harbor. The environmental watchdog group was seeking to prevent the city from adding the Stafford Creek Correctional Center to its system, citing overflow problems and a lack of capacity.
The city, in order to cut the cost of improvements, embarked on an aggressive campaign to rid the system of "inflow and infiltration," which is excessive water leaching into the sewer aging sewer lines.
"It came down to around $30 million for all of the improvements, of which the first phase was about $13 million," said Bledsoe. "We negotiated that down to two parts, about $6.5 million for the first part and then the second part's design would be based on how low we can get the infiltration flows. That final phase will be determined this winter."
The difference between the $5.6 million and the total cost of that first phase of improvements will be made up by funds Aberdeen already has in the budget, Bledsoe said, but the loan will still have to be paid back and so a rate increase will still be needed.
"Even though the interest rate is half a percent, when you've got a loan like this or even a bond at 5 or 6 percent it still affects your rates," he said.
Phase one includes improvements to the plant's aeration system, which provides biological treatment of the waste, and an additional clarifier, which provides settling out of treated solids.
"These two components will allow the city to handle the organic loading we would anticipate in the next 20 years, and to handle the high flows we expect during the winter," Bledsoe said. "Still, some portions of the plant may need to be upgraded further depending on the numbers we see this winter. That last rainstorm we had didn't impact the plant that much, but it'll be different in the wintertime when you have high groundwater and things become saturated."
David Wilkins, a Daily World writer, can be reached at 532 - 4000, ext. 123, or by e - mail at dwilkins@thedailyworld.com
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