State health officials visit The Gorge amphitheater

GEORGE - One of the world's greatest outdoor amphitheaters has a sewage problem. According to state health officials The Gorge Amphitheater actually has several sewage problems, but none are serious enough to keep festival goers away from this weekend's KUBE Summer Jam.

State and county health officials spent all day Wednesday inspecting the several forms of wastewater disposal that the venue uses and said it is safe for this weekend's party. They will return next week to make sure the venue's owners, Live Nation, has made changes before they allow the rest of this year's festivities to continue, according to the Washington Department of Health.

State health engineer Richard Benson said the venue's operators are answering all the questions they can, but have questions of their own.

"There are some sewer lines that do not have accurate flow meters, so they really don't know how much (sewage) is going in the (drain) field," he said after inspecting the facility.

He said that "there are no imminent threats to the public's health," but he does not like how many holding tanks or separate wastewater facilities the venue uses.

During concerts, trucks hauling raw sewage are constantly driving around the facility to dump sewage into holding tanks on the property's perimeter.

"That creates a possibility for exposure," he said and ideally there wouldn't be a need to constantly move sewage around the public.

State health department took issue with how venue disposes of grey water generated from hand-washing stations, in a letter sent to The Gorge General Manager Danny Wilde. After inspecting the stations this week, Benson said they are not ideal, but since they allow patrons to drink water and wash hands, two important public health concerns, health officials will allow for most of them to remain.

Benson said there is no place in the state that has a more complex sewage facility, employing portable toilets, a large-scale sewage facility, at least five small scale facilities, hand-washing stations, drinking water stations and holding tanks.

Grant County health inspector Todd Phillips said one sewage problem that he saw during the Sasquatch music festival, was getting appropriate attention by maintenance workers during the visit, but was not fixed yet. He would not say what exactly that problem involved.

He agreed with Benson that The Gorge is unique is the way it handles wastewater.

"Most everywhere else is built is a specific way, the gorge is ever changing so they've tried to adapt their facilities to try to meet their marketing and customer needs," he said.

Phillips and Benson said The Gorge operators duped county health officials when they asked for an additional 800 campsite in 2012. They agreed with the planning department's request to create or expand wastewater facilities to accommodate those sites, but are just now expanding their system.

Benson said that was done on "the honor system," and that will not be the case in the future.