News Items
02/06/02
On Wednesday January 30, 2002, the Spokesman-Review published an article titled "Old sewer systems fouling waterways". That article described that 1.2 trillion gallons of untreated sewage pours into waterways each year from aging sewer systems designed to overflow when it rains. Nationally, there are 772 communities with these types of systems and the City of Spokane is one of those communities.
So the question is, how many gallons overflow annually in the City of Spokane and what is the City doing about this problem?
The City of Spokane's Wastewater Management department has been aggressively dealing with this problem since the mid 1970's. After initial planning, the City spent over $50 million (approximately $20 million in State grant funds) to separate the stormwater out of the combined sewer system, thus eliminating Combined Sewer Overflows (CSO's). This work was completed by 1990 and resulted in the reduction of over 85% of the volume of untreated sewage flowing the Spokane River annually (from 800 million gallons annually down to less than 80 million gallons).
However, as the City was completing this program, EPA and the Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology) set even higher standards for communities to meet regarding CSO reduction. Instead of the original 85% volume reduction goal, regulators have now turned toward a goal of less than one (1) overflow event per year per CSO outfall and the requirement to prove the discharges meet in-river water quality standards. (For the City of Spokane, this is estimated to effective reduce annual overflow volumes to less than 2 million gallons.)
In 1994, the City of Spokane responded to this new challenge with completion of a new long-term control plan focused on meeting the new regulations described above. This phase of the City's CSO Reduction Program is estimated to cost over $70 million and is required under compliance order from the DOE to be completed by 2017. In 1997, the City selected the consultant Consoer Townsend Envirodyne (CTE) Engineers of Spokane, to assist with the implementation of this second phase of the City's CSO Reduction Program.
The City of Spokane is well within the schedule of completing the tasks required under this new program. The cost to implement this program has been programmed through the year 2017 with the judicious control of the budget and annual rate increases. Similar to the current treatment plant upgrades, the City's Wastewater Management staff does not anticipate the need to bond for the capital improvements identified in this program. This is a direct result of the long-term compliance schedule obtained with Ecology's approval and the professional oversight by City staff and the CTE Engineering group in administering this program. The long-term financial strategy includes completing all thirty (30) CSO Basin Plans with clear identification of all associated capital improvement projects in order to take advantage of future Federal and State grant funding programs.
A milestone will be reached this year in the City's program with the construction of the first CSO reduction facility, an in-line storage facility for two (2) drainage basins located in the Northwest Terrace neighborhood. The new storage facility is estimated to cost $1.5 million and will be constructed along Aubrey L. White Parkway just downstream of the City's Treatment Plant. As with any long-term program, periodic reports and updates to the program are required along with annual contract renewals for the program oversight with CTE Engineers.
" The City of Spokane's Wastewater Management Department is committed to protection of the environment associated with the Spokane River and region's Sole Source Aquifer through programs like this ".
To learn more about the City's CSO Reduction Program and overall Water Quality Improvement Programs, go to our website at www.spokanewastewater.org.
Tom Arnold
City of Spokane
Wastewater Management
Principle Engineer