By Mai Ling Slaughter, The Chronicle, 6/30/99
Centralia may have been denied money to design its new wastewater treatment plant, but city employees are not giving up that easily.
Tuesday, the city sent an appeal to the Washington Department of Ecology after the state agency denied a $3.5 million loan to design the new facility, and a $2.5 million loan to purchase property for it.
The funding comes from the
(Select the following to go to:) Centennial Clean Water Fund, http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wq/links/funding.html
which is administered by the DOE.
Dick Southworth, Centralia Utilities director, said the DOE apparently rejected the city's requests - including the loans and a grant-loan package - because of problems with its environmental evaluation.
''We delivered to (the DOE) - two days before the deadline - a preliminary environmental impact statement,'' Southworth said. ''We think we complied.''
Gerald Anderson, the DOE's environmental engineer who reviewed the city's facility plan, said the city needed to submit a final environmental evaluation, rather than a preliminary document.
''We tried to get them an extension, but we can't bend our regulations,'' Anderson said.
''They would have gotten the grant and loans if they would have finished the environmental impact statement,'' he added. ''The steps are very specific.''
Southworth said the city submitted a preliminary environmental impact statement only after he was told by DOE employees it would be acceptable to receive the funding.
But Anderson said Tuesday the statement needed to be in its complete form, a process that would have tacked on a number of additional months to allow time for public review and appeal.
Although the environmental impact statement was specifically for property acquisition, funding for the facility's design and a $250,000 grant-$250,000 loan package for a belt filter press was also denied.
Anderson said all funding was rejected because the three projects are tied together.
However, Southworth said, the city is purchasing the belt filter press under an administrative order from the DOE for the existing wastewater treatment plant.
The belt would help decrease water in sewer sludge, or biosolids, and would also be used in the new facility.
''On that issue,'' Anderson said, ''it's kind of gray.''
He added his program manager is now looking into the possibility of providing money for the belt filter press.
Another reason the city is filing the appeal regards a consent decree between the two groups, stating that the DOE will ''go to the maximum extent possible'' to support Centralia as it seeks funding.
''If you're going to the maximum extent possible - this is support?'' Southworth asked.
But Anderson said he tried - and was unable - to help out the city within legal limits.
''We have other people in the same boat,'' Anderson said, ''so we can't do it for one person and not others.''
Southworth said the city does have other options if it is not able to receive funding, but for now it is focusing on the Centennial Clean Water Fund.
At the Centralia City Council meeting on June 22, Mayor Jessie Brunswig said the funding is unfairly administered, because Spokane and Seattle annually receive half of the state's available funding.
The money - $12.5 million for King County and $5 million for Spokane - is set aside by the state Legislature, meaning the cities and counties need not apply for money or create environmental evaluations.
''The Legislature has clearly decided they're going to have a different set of rules than they have for the rest of us,'' Brunswig said.
The Legislature also guaranteed ''set-aside'' funding for the city of Connell in Eastern Washington, but it is not an annual award.
Mai Ling Slaughter covers municipal government for The Chronicle. She can be reached by e-mail at news@chronline.com or by telephoning 807-8237.
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