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KLICKITAT CO. — A meeting between the Klickitat County Commissioners and Klickitat PUD was squeezed in between the Board of County Commissioners morning workshop and afternoon regular session June 10. Chair Ron Ihrig called it “a good meeting,” and said progress had been made regarding a landfill gas grant to the Dallesport Water District.
Landfill gas grants are decided by a two person Landfill Gas Improvement Fund Committee, with one person representing the county and the other representing Klickitat PUD. Currently, Commissioner Lori Anderson represents the county and Dan Gunkel represents Klickitat PUD. He was unable to be at the meeting, but PUD commissioners Doug Miller and Stoner Bell were present, along with General Manager Gwen Miller.
Dallesport Water District had applied to the committee for $185,000 to purchase ATEC vessels for the Dallesport water system. The vessels are used to filter iron and manganese out of Dallesport drinking water. Though the committee had approved the request earlier, the water district had rejected the award due to a number of conditions attached.
The good news coming from the meeting is that both the county and PUD have agreed to remove those conditions, and a new grant agreement is being prepared. That agreement would decide whether Dallesport would submit invoices to the county for payment or submit a purchase order, or request reimbursement for receipts. The county public works department would provide oversight for the installation of the vessels.
The two Klickitat PUD commissioners presents had different ideas about what the grant should cover. Doug Miller said he does not think the grant should cover any labor, whether internal or from a contractor. He said it was a really simple device, and not that difficult to install: “It’s just the hardware and the ATEC system and the media filtering.”
Bell said the PUD was not trying to put restrictions on the grant, and that it would be unusual to restrict a grant to just materials. Board of Commission Chair Ron Ihrig said he supported anything that was needed, up to $185,000.
The meeting also discussed the Dallesport wastewater treatment plant. It had been built with landfill revenues by the county some 20 years ago, and with a greater capacity than was needed at the time to allow for future growth. Klickitat PUD had contracted with the county to operate the plant, since it operated water and sewer systems for a number of communities in Klickitat County. But for years, the county had not raised rates while enjoying substantial revenue from the landfill.
As Commissioner Todd Andrews put it, “Our landfill has allowed us to be the lowest tax county of all 39 counties” in Washington State.
But the loss of a couple of garbage contracts with large customers has dramatically reduced the county’s landfill income, at the same time, systems at the wastewater treatment plant are at the end of their useful lifespan and need to be replaced, another driver of rate increases.
At a recent meeting, commissioners approved a 5% sewer fee for Dallesport, after a double digit raise the previous year. Residents at the board meeting at which the recent hike was approved testified that they were comfortable with that relatively modest increase.
Other topics that came up during the two-hour meeting:
Chair Ihrig said he’d read the first quarter report from the Waste Management company Republic Services, and noted the company gets waste from Canada and are concerned about the potential effect of tariffs on the waste stream. Andrews said that Canada might just not want to send it anymore due to “the whole uproar.”
Ihrig thought it would be helpful to coordinate with the PUD to meet with the landfill operators Republic Services since they both have interests in it.
The Roosevelt landfill will have an open house on June 25. The Solid Waste Advisory Committee is meeting at the landfill that day as well. And they said the Governor is being invited, to view the upcoming pump storage project, to get him up to speed on the renewable natural gas project. He was also invited to the Klickitat County Fair in August.
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