DOE helps resolve septic system

EPHRATA — Washington state Department of Ecology (DOE) officials are looking for a solution for the septic systems at the Grant County Fairgrounds.

DOE became involved a second time with this project after a July 10 letter from the state Department of Health Environmental Engineer Richard Benson, referred the permitting process back to DOE.

Benson was asked by a citizen to find out whether the septic systems were large on-site septic systems. These systems handle more than 3,500 gallons of sewage per day at any point.

He said if the water from the fairgrounds flows into Moses Lake making it fall under DOE’s jurisdiction. The studies include one done for the county by Gray and Osborne in 2007 and the publication, “Moses Lake Total Maximum Daily Load Groundwater Study.”

Wayne Peterson, a DOE hydrogeologist, and Ginny Darrell, a permit unit supervisor, met with the commissioners to discuss how to proceed. Both Darrell and Peterson said their concern is Moses Lake, citing one of the same Gray and Osborne studies showing how the water flows from the fairgrounds and into the lake.

“We cannot approve … subsurface discharge for domestic wastewater, if there is another reasonable alternative,” Peterson said, citing a letter sent to the county by a DOE engineer, when the county was examining building one large septic system, rather than the five smaller ones it built.

He said connecting to the city’s sewer system seemed reasonable at the time.

“It would be less money to hook in there, all the other issues aside, not knowing all the various (dynamics),” he said. “We don’t understand the problem. The county has stated, ‘We don’t want to annex.’ Everybody understands you don’t want the annex.”

The county is afraid a future city council may decide to not allow animals on the fairgrounds, and wanted an agreement requiring future city councils to permit animals if the city annexed the property, Commissioner Richard Stevens said.

“They will not bind future councils,” Commissioner Cindy Carter said. “If the city council agreed to have animals at the fair and we hooked up to the city sewer, annexed the fairgrounds, it would apply to that council. There was also a councilmember who said he gets tired of the horse trailers going up and down the road, going to the fair. So that throws up a red flag.”

Commissioner Carolann Swartz asked why the county and the city couldn’t negotiate a long-term agreement, adding there are several fairs within city limits.

“There are other precedents out there. We’ve got Kittitas County has a fairgrounds right in the middle of Ellensburg and you’ve got Yakima, it has one. You’ve got Puyallup,” she said. “I don’t understand why we can’t come to some kind of agreement with this animal business.”

Peterson agreed if the city can’t guarantee animals at the fairgrounds, it wouldn’t be reasonable to require the county to hook up to the city’s sewer system.

Darrell asked whether the city could hook up to the city’s sewer system without annexation, or if there was a city ordinance requiring it.

Swartz said their appears to be a requirement for sewer connections to only take place on annexed land.

Stevens said he wasn’t sure, pointing to some residences located outside of the city’s limits, served by the sewer system.

“They just say, ‘It goes against their policy and if they do it for us, then they have to do it for everybody,’” he said. “There’s not many government to government units out there. We worked on that. We wanted to sign up.”

Peterson said he would talk with the city, to see if there is a way to reach an agreement so the county can hook into the city’s sewer system.