PE ELL - Pe Ell has a new sewer plant operator and a new town marshal, but both positions are filled by temporary appointments.
Tuesday, Mayor John Penberth announced he has hired a retired Chehalis wastewater treatment plant operator with 30 years of experience to take over operation of the town's sewer plant while he continues the search for an employee.
BOB SERL, WHO RETIRED from the city of Chehalis, is now working part-time in Pe Ell's sewer plant.
Penberth said Serl will work about four hours per day, but he will be available full-time for consultation with the city employee who has been running the sewer and water plants for the past three weeks.
Water plant operator Bregg Phelps took over operation of both plants Aug. 12, when Penberth fired Richard Smith, the plant's only certified wastewater treatment
plant operator.
Aug. 26, the state Department of Ecology fined the town $500 for operating without a certified wastewater technician. A second fine of $1,500 was issued Tuesday.
Phelps is a state-certified water plant and water distribution technician, but he is a trainee in wastewater operations. Phelps can legally operate the sewer plant only under the supervision of a certified operator.
Town attorney Robert Schroeter said Tuesday night the town will appeal the first fine. At that time the city had not learned of the second fine.
PE ELL IS OPERATING under a boil-water order issued by the state Department of Health in mid-April, and under a moratorium on new sewer hookups issued by Ecology in May.
Water line replacement work and treatment plant modifications are expected to be done in October. Penberth said he hopes to get the boil-water order lifted within 60 to 90 days.
Work on sewer lines and the wastewater treatment
Plant will come next. But Gray & Osborne consulting engineers said they don't have Ecology's formal approval to proceed.
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