Plants to move wastewater to Adams County

Effort potentially 'a win for everybody'

WARDEN — One-and-a-half million gallons.

That's about how much wastewater Warden processing plants Ochoa Foods and Washington Potato produce per day, city manager Mike Thompson estimates.

The wastewater, consisting of effluents from the processing plants, are pumped into a series of lagoons owned by the city of Warden, where the organic material settles and is used as fertilizer for crops, while the water is cleansed and mixed with fresh water, and ultimately sprayed onto crops.

But now Ochoa Foods is leading the charge to change the point of discharge for the wastewater from Warden into Adams County, and have more land upon which to apply it, as the city of Warden does not have enough land to support the wastewater.

"We're intervening and helping the city out, to get a system that is environmentally sound," said Jack Calder, vice president of manufacturing for Ochoa Foods.

Thompson explained that the Department of Ecology says there needs to be more land on which to put the wastewater, due to a buildup of nitrates resulting from a doubling of water discharge. Back when Ochoa Foods was Basic Frozen Foods, the company expanded to build a french fry line; the expansion caused the increase.

"We just didn't have enough land to support it," Thompson said. Another reason to see the discharge moved farther away is the odors that accompany the wastewater, which Thompson said is starchy water containing organic matter.

The project consists of laying pipeline from the existing Warden wastewater storage and pumping stations across approximately 6 miles to the Stahl Hutterian Farm for irrigation on agricultural crops as a water and nutrients supplement, Adams County building, planning and solid waste manager Loren Wiltse said. The new system proposes to pump the processed water from Warden lagoons to the existing 3,315-acre farm.

Thompson said Ochoa Foods, Washington Potato and the Country Morning Farms milk plant, which only produces 50,000 gallons of wastewater a week, will all use the new pipeline.

"Hopefully, it's a win for everybody," Wiltse said. "Twenty-one thousand-acre feet in water available for irrigation purposes will help augment deep wells outside of the Columbia Basin Project area."

As part of the review process to change the state permit for wastewater discharge to Adams County and the company's SEPA (State Environmental Policy Act) permit, Wiltse sent a letter that Ochoa Foods might have a significant impact upon the environment with the change if they did not address several air quality and vector control issues. The company has amended their environmental checklist to address those issues, Wiltse said.

Next, Wiltse will move forward to see if he can issue a mitigated determination of nonsignificance, or show that the company's move will not have an impact on the environment in Adams County, in regards to Ochoa's proposal, he said.

"Upon completion of the SEPA process, the company will have to begin to acquire the individual permits required from Warden, Grant County, Adams County and the state," Wiltse said.

Wiltse said a number of people view the change as though Adams County is receiving only waste, and not jobs or revenue.

"From an ag county standpoint, any additional irrigation capabilities you can get is a plus, provided they can control the odors or any other issues associated with it," he said, noting that at certain amounts of time in the year, passing by a potato plant can be almost unbearable due to the odor. Part of the goal is to protect the neighbors around the farms that will utilize the water. "Obviously, the farmers who get the water who are able to benefit (are) probably willing to trade off the odors, but we've got to look a little beyond that."

Thompson said the city of Warden's involvement as of late has mostly been meeting with the processors.

"We're willing to work with them all we can to keep the plants running and keep things going until they can get the wastewater to where they want to go," Thompson said. He added that it will take "a few years" to get everything taken care of, including the pipeline and a storage lagoon required by the Department of Ecology to store wastewater in during winter. Thompson said the goal is to get the pipeline out before November.

In the meantime, Thompson said, the city is spraying water on the land that it does have. Warden keeps records and reports to the Department of Ecology each month, and is taking soil samples and samples off of the crops being sprayed with the wastewater to see how much nitrate is being built up in the soil and how much is taken off with the crop, alfalfa, which takes most of the nitrates out of the soil. Nitrate is not desirable in soil, Thompson explained, because it will eventually work its way down into the drinking water.

"I think it's positive for the community itself if we can eliminate the odor and still keep the businesses growing and going in town," Thompson said. "It's something that all potato plants have had to deal with."

He noted that plants in Moses Lake and Othello have taken care of their own wastewater for years, and moved their operations for that process away from the communities in residence.