IN AN EFFORT to protect the environment and more easily navigate the required Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) permitting process, the Cowlitz Indian Tribe is planning to use a high-tech wastewater treatment process that is designed to meet the most stringent federal requirements.
LA CENTER – In an effort to protect the environment and more easily navigate the required Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) permitting process, the Cowlitz Indian Tribe is planning to use a high-tech wastewater treatment process that meets the most stringent federal requirements.
According to Michael Ollivant, a project design and consulting engineer with Parametrix, Inc., the company designing the Cowlitz Tribe’s water reclamation system, the advanced water treatment system will essentially take the tribe’s wastewater back to drinking water standards before injecting the newly “reclaimed” water 120 feet into the ground. Once underground, the water will pass through even more filtration before entering the groundwater system.
“It’s a very robust system,” Ollivant says. “It does exceed the minimum requirements for EPA and does produce water instead of treated wastewater.”
Citing concerns about the water reclamation system planned by the tribe, Clark County issued a Stop Work Order at the Cowlitz project site on Feb. 26 and then last week the county and its fellow appellants in the federal lawsuit opposing the casino project near the La Center I-5 junction filed a motion seeking an injunction to halt construction at the tribe’s 152-acre reservation site.
Ollivant’s firm has worked on several water reclamation projects throughout Washington State, including the Nisqually Indian Tribe’s sustainable, “zero waste” water reclamation facility; a project for Washington State University that sends reclaimed water to the city of Pullman and the university’s irrigation system; and the city of Shelton’s reclaimed water project, which recharges the city’s groundwater aquifer.
He says the process of water reclamation, which uses a microfiltration membrane technology to take the treated wastewater back to drinking water standards, may be high-tech, but that the methods are well-tested and pass the toughest EPA requirements.
“Even though it’s an advanced system, it’s very tried and true,” Ollivant says. “There are thousands of these plants in the U.S., and one of the reasons why this system was selected is that it does exceed the minimum requirements for the EPA and (the Cowlitz Tribe) wanted to make sure they had a robust system.”
Ollivant explains that, in the wastewater world, there are basically three levels of treatment: Primary, which produces a low-level of treated wastewater similar to what a septic system might do for a single-family dwelling; Secondary, which is the level of treatment required for municipalities as well as any entity that is discharging treated wastewater into a river; and Advanced, which takes water from a “wastewater” designation back to drinking water standards.
“This level (the advanced level) is much higher than most municipalities have,” Ollivant says.
The Cowlitz’ water reclamation plant will be run by certified operators, continuously monitored and will initially treat about 70,000 to 100,000 gallons of water a day. After the water leaves the plant, it will go into a Class V injection well, which sends the reclaimed water through 120 feet of soil, offering additional filtration before the reclaimed water reaches the groundwater system.
The EPA’s Underground Injection Control (UIC) program seeks to protect underground drinking water from injection wells and is responsible for permitting and overseeing the safety of deep-well injection projects. The EPA splits these injection wells into six classifications, including Class I, which are typically drilled thousands of feet below the ground and are used in many petroleum refining, metal production and pharmaceutical production industries. The EPA used to allow Class I wells for municipal wastewater treatment, but stopped the practice in the late 1980s. Today, the only places with Class I municipal wastewater treatment wells are in Florida.
In contrast, there are thousands of Class V wells – used to inject non-hazardous fluids either into or above underground sources of drinking water – being used in conjunction with reclaimed water plants. The Cowlitz project will use a Class V well to inject the reclaimed water into the ground, above the groundwater system. Nationwide, the EPA oversees nearly 3,000 Class V wells on tribal lands, including 985 Class V wells in Washington State.
Ollivant says that the Cowlitz project should have no trouble passing the EPA’s strict requirements, but adds that the tribe will have to go back for permits when the casino begins to grow and when the tribe starts to build the planned resort hotel on the reservation site near La Center.
“This is the first phase of the water reclamation plant,” Ollivant explains. As the Cowlitz casino grows, and as the tribe begins to expand its casino-resort project, the tribe will have to go back to the EPA for additional registration to expand the water reclamation plant’s capacity.
“EPA wants to make sure the system is working and that it is producing clean water (before allowing any expansions),” Ollivant says. “With EPA permitting, the EPA asks for technical data to make sure that the wells will protect the groundwater. That is the stage we’re in right now, providing this data and answering reliability questions.”
Ollivant says that the cost for this type of advanced, high-tech water reclamation plant exceeds the cost of most municipal wastewater systems by about 60 percent.
“It is expensive,” Ollivant says of building an advanced wastewater treatment facility like the Cowlitz’ planned water reclamation plant. “Typically they are quite a bit more than a (regular) wastewater treatment plant.”
He says the Cowlitz’ plant will cost about $13 million to $14 million, and that Parametrix plans to complete the project in time for the spring of 2017 planned opening of the Cowlitz casino.
