PORT ANGELES — Clallam County commissioners have approved a letter of support for a $500,000 grant that would help pay for sewer infrastructure in Carlsborg.
The Community Economic Revitalization Board grant would be used for sewer and water re-use pipes in the Carlsborg Industrial Park that will eventually connect to a Class A wastewater treatment and water re-use facility in Carlsborg or Sequim.
Commissioners on Tuesday voted 3-0 to approve the letter that reflects their continued support for the long-planned $15.7 million project.
“I think it’s incumbent on us to try to push that along as quickly and as well and responsibly as we can so that we don’t have another situation arise like we’ve been coping with the last four years,” said Commissioner Jim McEntire, whose district covers Carlsborg and the eastern third of the county.
McEntire was referring to a 2008 Growth Management Act sanction that prevented Carlsborg businesses from expanding after the Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board deemed the Carlsborg urban growth area invalid and noncompliant with the 1990 legislation because it lacked a sewer.
A vocal group of Carlsborg residents have protested the sewer because of the unknown costs.
Some have taken the county to task for its claims that failing septic systems were polluting the porous Dungeness Valley aquifer with nitrates and other contaminants.
Others said a sewage treatment plant in Carlsborg would subject nearby residents to potential health hazards, odors and a loss of property values.
Taking these concerns into account, the county enacted temporary zoning — and extended the “interim controls” seven times — to plan for a sewer, buy time to finance it and appeal portions of the growth board ruling in court.
Last year, Clallam County received a $10 million loan from the state Public Works Trust Fund to build the sewer.
The loan would be paid off through the Opportunity Fund over 30 years at 0.5 percent interest.
Clallam County had already committed $4 million to the effort, with another $1.6 million still needed.
After the initial customers hook into the sewer — in April 2015 according to the draft facilities plan — the Clallam County Public Utility District will own and operate the infrastructure.
Residents with modern septic systems would not be required to connect.
“I think we owe it to the citizens who own property, live or have a business in Carlsborg to accomplish what needs to be accomplished so that they can develop or use or enjoy their property as they see fit as the law allows,” McEntire said.
“So I am firmly in support of wastewater infrastructure and getting it done as quickly and as cheaply as we can.”
On the legal track, the original growth board ruling was overturned in Clallam County Superior Court in June 2009.
But Futurewise, a Seattle-based public interest group that challenged Carlsborg and several other elements in the county’s comprehensive zoning plan, appealed.
The growth board ultimately lifted the sanction in June.
Commissioner Mike Chapman thanked the county Prosecuting Attorney’s Office for “successfully defending the urban growth area from attacks from Futurewise, who wanted the county to down-zone and lose the urban growth area.”
“The reason we’re here today to move the sewer forward is the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was able to defend an urban growth area from an outside attack,” Chapman said. “I think that has not been mentioned enough: that successful defense of county policy.”
The city of Sequim hosted an open house in Carlsborg issues Aug. 7 with county and PUD officials.
“It was a lively meeting,” McEntire said. “There was a good exchange of views.”
About 75 attended the meeting, which coincided with the primary election.
“My takeaways were that we will need to have another one of those occasions just as soon as we can provide some actual concrete numbers as to cost, both of the capital infrastructure and what we think the operating costs, the maintenance costs are going to be,” McEntire said.
“I think we will have those in hand shortly. I won’t make a prediction, but I know that we’re working hard on that right now.”
McEntire said there needs to be an “ongoing discussion” over the character of Carlsborg, and how to “keep the right balance of growth and the rural nature going forward.”
The PUD submitted a facilities plan to the state Department of Ecology that places the treatment facility at the PUD’s parcel at 110 Idea Place off Carlsborg Road.
Another option would be to pipe the sewage to Sequim’s existing treatment plant and return reclaimed water to Carlsborg.
In earlier meetings, county officials said the latter option would be cost-prohibitive.
Planning Manager Steve Gray on Monday said the facilities plan could be modified if the Sequim treatment option proves to be cheaper.
He added that the Community Economic Revitalization Board grant does not lock the county into either option.
“It’s to pay for the sewer pipe and the re-use pipe [in the industrial area],” Gray said.
The grant would cover more than half of the estimated $960,000 infrastructure cost for the Carlsborg Industrial Park, which supports more than 30 businesses and about 400 employees, Senior Planner Carol Creasey said.
Community Economic Revitalization Board grants target “projects resulting in construction of publicly owned infrastructure, facilities, and related improvements which enable and encourage private sector business creation or expansion, redevelopment of brownfields, or enhance the vitality and livability of the community,” according to the executive summary of the grant.
The grant would come with a 5 percent county match.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
