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City to present stormwater solutions
By Meg
Olson
A permanent
solution to Blaine’s sewer overflow problems and a
temporary solution to the shortfalls of the city’s
old sewer treatment plant are ready to be unveiled.
On July 23, city staff, consultants and members of the wastewater
advisory committee will present a series of alternatives
and their recommendations for overflow storage and new headworks
on the east side of Drayton Harbor.
Blaine public works director Grant Stewart said, “The
city is a steward of water quality and we are interested
in doing everything we can to return oyster harvesting to
Drayton Harbor within three years. Not only that, our proposed
solutions are consistent with our plans for a regional solution.
Asked to give a thumbnail view of the proposal, Stewart
said “The project provides a wide spot in the line
to store excess water until we can pump later.”
All wastewater from central and east Blaine runs downhill
to lift station #1, next to Blaine Marine Park. Lift station
pumps then push the sewage through a pipe under the harbor
to the wastewater treatment plant at the foot of Semiahmoo
spit.
Due to an aging collection system – in some areas dating
back to the 1920s – groundwater enters the system and,
in periods of heavy rain, overwhelms the pumps. The result
is sewer overflows, which continue to plague the city despite
several years of upgrades.
While the pumps can now handle over three times the normal
wastewater flow even in winter, a once-in-five-years storm,
dumping up to half an inch of rain in an hour, would swamp
the system with 120,000 gallons too much flow, which would
end up overflowing into the harbor.
Under an administrative order from the state department
of ecology (DOE) to stop the overflows, the city put temporary
bladders at the lift station #1 site as a stopgap measure,
and a wastewater advisory committee made up of representatives
from local stakeholders started looking at alternatives
for a long-term fix.
Also under DOE orders, the group looked into replacing the
wastewater treatment plant’s headworks, which pretreat
sewage to remove grit and grease that can jam the plant’s
equipment. Existing headworks were described in a facilities
plan prepared by consultants TeteraTech/KCM as “in
very poor condition,” which could lead to violations
of the city’s wastewater discharge permit.
The city’s wastewater committee looked at four alternatives
sites for new facilities, and cost estimates with and without
new headworks. All options included facilities to remove
odors.
The cheapest and easiest alternative was 400,000 gallons
of extra storage in an underground tank built at the existing
lift station #1 site and no new headworks, estimated at
$4 million. At the high end was 700,000 of flow storage
and new headworks at the site of the old Gull Station on
F and Third streets, costing over $8.5 million. The site
currently housing the Subway building on Peace Portal and
Marine drives was also considered for both headworks and
a storage tank.
The option favored by the advisory committee was new headworks
at the old lift station and a long pipe for overflow storage
built underneath Marine Drive.
“One of the things that made that attractive was the
possibility of coupling the project with road work,”
said assistant public works director Steve Banham. All the
alternatives looked at building a public amenity as part
of the sewer project, from a new visitor’s center at
the Subway site to a new street or a skateboard park along
Marine Drive.
The new headworks would be the most expensive component
of the upgrade and are estimated to only extend the life
of the wastewater treatment plant by three to seven years.
Ideas to keep the price down include a cheaper prefabricated
unit at one of the proposed sites or above ground at the
existing treatment plant site, and a grease-control program
for local businesses.
City manager Gary Tomsic said the proposed upgrades would
be both a solution to current problems and part of a regional
wastewater plan now being developed by Blaine and Birch
Bay. “The city is plumbed to this point,” he said,
referring to lift station #1. “Any work that we did
here would need to be done either way.” Tomsic added
that securing funding for a regional facility, estimated
to cost $30 million, could push that project into the next
decade. “We could be where we are for a fairly long
time,” he said.
Proposed storage and headworks upgrades could allow the
existing system to serve the community’s needs until
then. “If we can’t make some interim improvements
at the wastewater treatment plant, ultimately it could have
an effect on growth,” Tomsic said, adding the most
likely impact would be that the city couldn’t accommodate
another large, industrial user on the system.
The public meeting is from 4 to 5:30 p.m. July 23 at city
hall.
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