SEQUIM — City Council members have urged staff members to take a serious look at what sewer and water treatment services the city could extend to future private-sector partners such as the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe’s 7 Cedars Casino expansion and resort, and the commercial district in Carlsborg.
Sequim council members were told Monday that the city has the capacity for extending services.
“We’ve got the facility. I think we should use it,” City Council member Don Hall said. “I think it’s a shame we are not using that.”
The council unanimously called for staff to move forward on studying future sewer service prospects beyond the city limits.
Such service to areas east and west, which are limited by growth with septic systems, could prove to be a major economic boost in better times, they said.
Public Works Director Paul Haines said the city’s sewage plant can treat 1.6 million gallons of wastewater a day and is using about half that capacity now.
Given a 7 percent annual growth rate, Haines said, the plant would double its existing flow in 10 years.
Battelle services
The city already is working with the Marine Sciences Laboratory for the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, commonly called Battelle, to provide water and sewer service there by 2012.
That requires a fast-track, less-expensive approach to get the water and sewer lines extended about 7,000 feet eastward down West Sequim Bay Road to the lab on acreage fronting Sequim Bay.
“They plan to grow and attract businesses there for a research and development park,” city Manager Steve Burkett told the council.
Estimated cost, city Public Works Director Paul Haines said, is about $1.3 million in a first phase, with water line extension costing almost $1 million.
The road would be patched only to expedite services and maintain accessibility to the lab.
“We will fund that locally,” Burkett said, but those who benefit from the project would have to ante up as partners.
The North Olympic Peninsula’s U.S. congressional delegation of Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Belfair — who represents the 6th Congressional District — and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Freeland, would be needed for potential federal appropriations to help fund the long-term project, Burkett said.
The city has already discussed the Marine Lab’s infrastructure needs with Dicks and Murray.
Opportunity fund
Clallam County’s opportunity fund and the state Department of Commerce could be other sources of economic development funding, Burkett said.
The lab, with about 95 employees, uses a septic system for its wastewater and an artesian well as its water source, city officials said.
Additional improvements in a second phase, including water, sewer and traffic improvements, are seen for long-term growth at the lab and the nearby Wayne Enterprises’ development proposal near John Wayne Marina.
That could run well beyond $8 million, Haines said, and creating a loop road network from U.S Highway 101 in the distant future could take expenses to $12 million.
Sewer and water service to SunLand is also a possibility, with the city already contracted to remove SunLand’s biosolids, the solid waste product removed in wastewater treatment and used for agricultural composting.
The city has about 2,500 Sequim sewer customers, Burkett said, and those customers are paying for the city’s excess capacity.
The city wants to change that, adding more paying customers, he added.
The city manager said he met with 7 Cedars Casino General Manager Jerry Allen and Annette Nesse, Jamestown S’Klallam tribe director of administration, and they informed him the tribe is not interested in getting into the sewage treatment business, either now or when the tribe expands the casino and adds conference space and a resort hotel.
With the city providing sewer service to the casino, Burkett said, “It would be cheaper than them building and operating their own plant.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.