DAYTON—Residents, business owners, and concerned neighbors gathered at Dayton High School last Wednesday, seeking clarification on the status of the city’s wastewater project. Concerns were raised after the Dayton City Council twice voted against a purchase that was one of the critical steps towards solving the city’s wastewater issue after a decade of planning. “What happens next?” was on everyone’s mind at the June 2 town hall gathering.

Cynthia Wall-Fuller, Washington State Department of Commerce project manager, gave a brief overview of the Small Communities Initiative (SCI) Program. The state formed the SCI to provide technical assistance to small, rural communities that must upgrade their drinking water or wastewater systems to current regulations.

The initiative provides support and funding to assist small, rural communities in meeting the same public health and environmental mandates as larger cities.

Wall-Fuller explained her role in the project was to offer technical support, including formulating action plans that comply with state regulations.

“The most important thing to let the city and the citizens know is that we are here to support Dayton in helping them meet their regulatory requirements as soon as possible,” she said. “Our goal is to get the city, to keep them in compliance, helping them meet the regulations, and keep them safe from any kind of compliance action or civil lawsuit.”

According to Wall-Fuller, a study was performed on the Walla Walla Water Shed, including the Touchet River. The study found that the river did not meet water-quality standards during the low-flow summer months (May-October).

The Department of Ecology and the City of Dayton met in 2007, just before the study was published, according to Wall-Fuller, to begin discussing how to upgrade the current system to meet the low thresholds of acceptable pollutant discharge.

“It is really challenging, the pollutant limits are really low, and the current technology that is out there in the wastewater world just cannot meet the limits to continue discharging into the river in the summer,” Wall-Fuller explained.

In 2008, the Department of Ecology published an implementation plan that gave entities that discharged wastewater into the Touchet River, including the City of Dayton’s wastewater treatment plant, an improvement allocation.

City officials worked with Anderson Perry (AP) to create a facilities plan to explore wastewater options.

A land-treatment system using dispersed water to irrigate non-food crops during the summer months was considered by the city. There were up to seven properties that fit the 160-acre minimum needed for such a plan. Each parcel presented its own challenges, including elevation issues, the cost to pump the water to the fields, and yearly regulatory paperwork.

The implementation plan developed at that time had a ten-year compliance schedule which expired on December 31, 2021. The city can request an extension if it meets all required criteria; however, an extension would be considerably shorter than ten years.

While the city was searching for the best property, they were approached by the Washington Land Trust to discuss an option that would discharge water back into the river and meet regulatory requirements.

In May of 2019, The Confederated Tribes of Umatilla, Anderson Perry, Department of Ecology, Washington Water Trust, and wetlands experts met with city officials to discuss the plan. Advantages of a wetland facility are low maintenance and operations cost, cultural education and repair opportunities, riparian upgrades, and an aesthetically pleasing, low-impact plant. In addition, a wetland facility requires less acreage than an irrigation discharge project.

Two properties were identified as suitable for the project, one was coming up for sale, and the owner of the second neighboring property was willing to sell.

To help pay for the land purchase, the city arranged for a $999,000, low-interest loan from the Department of Ecology. Under the loan agreement terms, half of the loan amount will be forgiven at the end of the loan period. The City of Dayton has only utilized approximately $10,000 of the loan.

Grant and loan opportunities for conventional water treatment plants are available; however, Wall-Fuller expressed that the funding opportunities for unconventional, innovative projects like the proposed wetlands treatment far exceed the former.

Asked what would happen should the city do nothing to address the issue, Wall-Fuller said Dayton would face fines and fees without indicating how large or small. She said it would also open the city to third-party citizen lawsuits

“If you get sued by Waste Action Project, say, they take you to court, the schedule gets set… they don’t care if you need to borrow $12 million, $50 million, $10 million, or if it costs citizens $100, $150 per month, it really squeezes communities, backs them into a corner, if it gets to that point,” she explained.

When asked what option the council is currently pursuing, Dayton Mayor Zac Weatherford said, ‘that’s a good question!’ He noted that the previous council was in support of the wetlands project.

On April 6, the current council voted to table the real estate resolution that would allow the purchase of the identified properties, pending the results of a special-use permit. The permit was approved, but at an April 12 meeting, the council voted down the purchase authorization by majority vote.

During a workshop on April 27, the council discussed options, including renegotiating the proposed land sales terms, contacting a neighboring property owner, and exploring land use designs.

On May 10, during a regular council meeting, a similar resolution offering approximately $100,000 less for the purchase price was again denied.

“Since then, we have been working internally to answer questions that council members have brought forth,” Mayor Zac Weatherford said. He said he has talked to another potential landowner and has explored land use facilities, among other ideas, but he was still unsure how the council would move forward. He said he doubted the two original landowners would reconsider the third offer.

When asked, Wall-Fuller said that she spoke to a manufacturer of water-storage tanks suggested for use by Councilperson Kyle Anderson at a previous city council meeting. She said the tanks are relatively portable and hold approximately 400,000 gallons of water. The city needs storage for as much as 300,000 gallons per day, requiring 15 to 20 tanks at an estimated $400,000 per unit.

Wall-Fuller said the tanks are not approved for this use and would take an extensive process taking time the city does not have to gain approval. Tanks would require roughly the same amount of acreage as the favored wetlands facility.

Weatherford said that he encourages citizens in Dayton and Columbia County to reach out to their elected officials to encourage forward movement on the project. He noted that there is a ‘ton of information’ regarding the project at the Dayton City Hall that is available upon request.

“We need to know what our council wants to do. The city, and all these other entities before you, cannot move forward with anything unless we know that when we go to present it to the council, they will be in support of it,” he said.

Weatherford noted that the current council was split on the project. The initial purchase resolution presented was denied in a 3-4 vote; a 3-3 vote shut down the second resolution.