By Sharon Michael, The Chronicle, 12/14/98
GRAND MOUND - A new Grand Mound wastewater treatment plant dedicated Saturday morning is a dream come true for area residents and property owners, who have worked toward providing municipal water and sewer services to the unincorporated area for nearly 20 years.
''We really believe Grand Mound will take off like a flower in the desert,'' Dick Nichols, chairman of the Thurston County Commission, told the 60 or so citizens and government officials on hand for the ceremony.
Nichols said the plant, part of a larger water and sewer utility and road improvement project, ''will pave the way for development in this area.
''What we celebrate today is more than a feat of construction and engineering,'' he said.
Nichols said the new plant ''celebrates the people of Grand Mound and their vision'' - citizens who pursued their goal through ''changes of elected officials'' and ''changes in the rules.''
Jim Thomas, a Grand Mound businessman, said the citizens advisory committee began in the early 1980s as ''kind of a loose-knit group.''
Thomas said the state Department of Transportation had proposed running a pipeline from the Scatter Creek and Maytown Interstate 5 rest areas to the Tumwater city limits to connect with LOTT - the sewer system serving Lacey, Olympia, Tumwater, and Thurston County - at a cost of $2 million.
A group of businesspeople having coffee one morning at a Grand Mound restaurant thought DOT's money could be better spent.
''We felt if they were going to spend that kind of money, why not build a sewer plant in the Grand Mound area?'' Thomas recalled. ''That's kind of how it got started.
''From there, we petitioned the county commissioners. We were just persistent enough - we kept bugging them, until finally it happened.''
The state Growth Management Act and changing environmental regulations delayed the project for years. But in 1995, some 950 acres around the Grand Mound freeway interchange were targeted as an urban growth area by Thurston County on the condition the community support creation of a utility to pay for water and sewer services.
The Grand Mound area was designated a ''community growth center'' by the county in 1978. But development in the area was stymied by the need to protect a large aquifer underneath the area that provides the community's sole source of drinking water.
''The county would not let any new development of any consequence come into the area for fear of possibly contaminating the ground water - and justifiably so,'' Thomas explained. ''The whole thing was really (about) sewer.''
County officials say the requirement for a water and sewer utility was to ensure ''the UGA designation would actually lead to growth, and not simply become another plan scuttled by aquifer problems.''
In 1996, the county formed a Grand Mound Utility Local Improvement District that included 360 acres of the larger urban growth area. That made it possible to raise money for the project, including contributions from DOT and the state Department of Social and Health Services.
Once the project got off the drawing board, it took less than a year to construct.
''Last December, we were standing here in the middle of Christmas trees,'' said Nichols, who flipped the switch to start the plant Saturday.
Maple Lane School - a DSHS juvenile rehabilitation facility on Old Highway 9 - will be one of the sewer plant's first customers.
Commercial and industrial customers have up to two years to connect to the sewer system.
Residential property owners who have working septic systems and wells will not be required to hook up to the system. About two-thirds of the utility local improvement district is zoned commercial; the remainder is designated residential.
Pat Schoelkopf, a businesswoman and property owner who serves on the citizens advisory committee, said the new sewer system is expected to attract commercial and industrial development that passed the area by because of the amount of land required to support a septic system and a well. The municipal water and sewer systems will also allow higher density residential development
''It takes an acre of ground for a water system,'' she said.
Businesspeople interested in opening a coin-operated laundry abandoned their plans when they found they needed seven acres of land for an adequate drain field.
''When we do develop, we can develop much more safely, and we can protect our water,'' Schoelkopf added.
Schoelkopf says commercial and industrial development will benefit the whole area.
''The school district can't support itself with just residential development,'' she said.
''Everything is ideal for development,'' Thomas said. ''Now we just have to wait and see what happens.
''The (Olympia) port district has an option to buy 43 acres from the Miller Land Trust that is real close to I-5,'' Thomas added. ''It has rail access, and they want to make an industrial park out of it.
''It's an ideal spot for an industrial park. That would be a big benefit to the whole area - including Centralia,'' Thomas said.
County commissioners say they hope to eventually provide water and sewer services to the entire urban growth area around the interchange of Interstate 5 and U.S. Highway 12.
In addition to the sewer treatment plant and two vacuum collection stations, the Grand Mound project includes a half-million-gallon water reservoir east of the freeway. The reservoir will be fed by two wells built on the west side of the interstate.
Improvements to Old Highway 99, Elderberry Street, 196th Avenue, and Sargent Road were also part of the project.
Just more than $3 million of project costs will be paid by DOT and DSHS in exchange for sewer service to Maple Lane School, and to the Scatter Creek and Maytown freeway rest stops.
The balance of the cost will be financed by hookup charges and monthly user fees, and an assessment to be paid by property owners within the ULID.
A public meeting on rates is set for 7 p.m. tonight at Rochester High School. A one-hour informational open house begins at 6 p.m.
Sharon Michael covers Centralia and Chehalis city governments for The Chronicle. She can be reached by e-mail at smichael@chronline.com or by calling 807-8237.
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