By Mai Ling Slaughter, The Chronicle, 7/20/99
A regionalized wastewater treatment plant is still an option for Centralia after it decided last week to purchase the Flying T Ranch property for $1,174,000.
But at approximately 360 acres, the property is much larger than what is needed for a wastewater facility.
''It isn't necessary,'' said Mayor Pro Tem Joyce Barnes, ''but that's what was for sale.''
The Flying T Ranch, located north of Fords Prairie at 1213 Goodrich Road, is surrounded largely by farmland.
Utilities Director Richard Southworth said 20 to 25 acres are sufficient for a wastewater plant of Centralia's capacity.
But Barnes said the size of the property makes a regional plant - which would process wastewater from Chehalis, Napavine and Lewis County Sewer District 1 - a more viable option.
''We're willing to do regionalization, but we can't do it by ourselves,'' Barnes said. ''If Chehalis and Lewis County want to be doing it, they need to be talking to us.''
Southworth said by purchasing a larger portion of land, the city can also ''avoid what's happened here at the existing plant.''
''If you buy the property now,'' he added, ''you have the capability to expand it.''
The current wastewater treatment plant lies on 4 acres of property, but the city is not able to expand the plant because the land is limited by the floodway, the adjacent Chehalis River and Interstate 5.
Although the city did have one option to upgrade the current wastewater treatment plant, Southworth said it would have cost millions of dollars with a lifespan of no more than 20 years.
But by purchasing the 360-acre property, councilors are trying to plan for at least the next 100 years.
''Our goal from the very beginning is: If we're building a new plant, we need to be prepared for the future,'' Barnes said.
At the councilors' workshop on wastewater Tuesday evening, Councilor Tim Browning - who chairs the Citizens' Advisory Committee - addressed some audience members who live near the Flying T Ranch.
''The Citizens' Advisory Committee is not interested in doing anything to spoil anybody's neighborhood in any way,'' he said. ''We have been to four locations in the U.S. trying to figure out how to do this for our community and somebody else's neighborhood.''
Another reason for purchasing such a large space is to protect its neighbors from having to ''see it, hear it, smell it,'' he added.
''I think you'll find that we're going to be really good neighbors,'' Browning said.
Flying T neighbor Joyce Stanfield said the road to the property - which lies on the 100-year floodplain - was washed out during the flood of 1996.
Those traveling over Goodrich Road toward the property must use a bridge over Dry Creek - which is an actual creek in spite of its name.
Although the bridge stayed above water, Stanfield said the road past the bridge was covered with a moving current through which people could not drive.
David Reynolds, with consultant company CH2M Hill, said that will be addressed in more detailed studies.
Also, Southworth said plant designers can follow different options to reduce a flood's effect on the new treatment plant.
He said the plant itself would still operate in a flood, but options for personnel offices, equipment, storage and other facilities that must stay dry include building them at a higher level above the flooding area.
One advantage of having the large property is finding suitable soil to raise those facilities within the property rather than purchasing it from another source, Southworth said.
''There's a whole host of alternatives that we can assess when you have that much land available,'' he said.
For instance, he said, there are ways to process the effluent for use on the soil as irrigation. That option would be especially useful if some of the unused land was converted into a park or other public access property.
The city also looked at three other properties north of the Port of Centralia that are each closer to 25 acres in size. Employees are creating the environmental impact statements on each of the properties - including the Flying T Ranch property - that should be available for public inspection in September, Southworth said.
The statements will include information about traffic in the areas, the effect of 24-hour lighting, noise, and other subjects that would be of importance to neighbors and others.
One reason councilors decided to purchase the property before the environmental statements are finished is to prevent the price from inflating. Southworth said the property price often increases after it becomes more viable.
However, councilors are not insistent on building the plant there.
''It doesn't necessarily mean the plant will be built on the property,'' Browning said. ''It likely will be.''
Chehalis Mayor Bob Spahr said its wastewater consultant is still looking into issues related to regionalizing the city's new wastewater treatment plant.
''They're still compiling information on cost and impacts,'' Spahr said. ''Staff's still working on it, and (it is hoped) we'll have some answers very soon.''
Chehalis now processes wastewater from Lewis County Sewer District 1 and Napavine, but it will probably need to replace its aging wastewater treatment plant within the next decade.
CH2M Hill estimates the new wastewater treatment plant at more than $30 million.
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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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