INSIDE

Board preparing for public sewer meeting

By Meg Olson

The Point Roberts water district is publicly taking on its role as a sewer district with a meeting to get public input for the development of the sewer comprehensive plan.

“We’re in the very beginning of the comprehensive plan review and we want to see what’s important to the community, to bring everyone on board early,” said district engineer David Nitchals.

The comprehensive plan update is being paid for with an 80 percent grant from the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service and was sparked by a proposal from the economic development committee’s infrastructure subcommittee, which applied for the grant on behalf of the district.

At the September 10 meeting planned for 7 p.m. at the community center engineers will present what they see as technical options and ask which ones the community would favor. “We’re not coming in with an agenda,” Nitchals said. “We’re coming in as an impartial third party to look at the technical issues. The political issue of whether to have a sewer is up to the community and the commissioners.”

The first area Nitchals said they will ask input on is project phasing. ‘If there is sewer, which areas should be first?” he asked. “There’s no way we can sewer the whole Point right away. It would be too expensive.” Another issue is which areas can be sewered. The growth management act limits sewers in rural and perhaps transitional zones, and environmental concerns preclude putting them through wetlands, according to district engineer Bob Bergstrom.

Engineers will also present options for treatment collection and disposal of waste. Options for the collection system include traditional gravity systems or pressurized systems with grinders or settling tanks at each property served. “There are so many variables to take into account it’s hard to get into a sound bite but basically gravity is more expensive up front but less expensive to maintain,” Nitchals said.

A treatment plant could be located where the marina drainfield is now, at a five-acre site the district already owns near the airport next to the Churchill Drive water tank or on another property.

“Depending on treatment it could be pretty small,” Nitchals said. He said they were focusing on two treatment options that output class A water suitable for irrigation: a sequence batch reactor and a membrane
system.

Another option is to negotiate an agreement to send the waste to Canada and not have a plant on the Point at all. “We’ve had a hard time reaching them,” Nitchals said. He added one option would be to start by sending the waste to Canada and then build a plant as the system grew and flows increase.

There are several options to get rid of the effluent, from irrigating the golf course or other developments to wetland development. One option that is unlikely, according to district manager Dan Bourks, is an outfall dumping the effluent out to sea.

Beyond all the options engineers and commissioners agree they want to have a better idea from the community what their mandate to proceed is. “One of the things I want to hear is whether or not people want sewers, period, and why,” Nitchals said.

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