The Happy Valley Neighborhood Association Meeting: Alternatives for Handling Bellingham’s Excrement

Barbara Perry, has lived in the Happy Valley neighborhood since 1973. She graduated from WWU in 1985, and has taught English composition and literature at Northwest Indian College, Whatcom Community College, WWU and University of Washington. She is currently retired.

The following are some questions and answers presented to City of Bellingham Public Works Director Ted Carlson on the proposed Post Point Sewer Plant expansion. Following his responses are questions and answers from a private citizen, Henning Gatz, proposing the city use a Salnes methane system. Their documents were handed out at the meeting of July 21, 2011.

[Words underlined indicate web pages on the City of Bellingham website].

Happy Valley Neighborhood Association (HVNA) questions to Public Works Director, Ted Carlson

HVNA: You have on the city’s website that the total cost of the Mortenson project to be completed by 2014 is $47,305,000 and the bi-monthly residential bill will rise 6.5 percent.

Total Projected Cost

• Costs for professional services $7,095,000

• Estimated construction costs $28,810,000

• Equipment/furnishing costs $7,300,000

• Off-site costs

$1,000,000

• Contract administration costs $2,900,000

• Other related project costs $200,000

• Total (sales tax/contingency) $47,305,000

Do you still consider this to be a probable estimate? Have you seriously looked at the Salnes system and its reduced costs? Why have you rejected that system? What other alternatives have you considered that would cost less and why have you rejected them?

Director Carlson: We publish updates to the cost estimates as they become available. The next update will be presented to council on July 25, 2011 and published on our website later that week. The overall project cost is similar, with some minor changes to various components. The sewer rate structure was set in 2007 and includes rates through 2013.

Aquacare filters have been proposed as an option by Mr.Gatz to replace existing primary clarifiers, which: (1) are currently performing well; (2) have years of remaining service life; and (3) do not require significant expansion as part of the Post Point Wastewater Treatment Plant improvements. The filter option was considered by the city during planning, but was not pursued because it did not provide the required treatment performance, capacity, or financial benefits.

HVNA: Have you rejected the idea of capturing methane gas to create power and if so why?

Director Carlson: The current Post Point WWTP improvements do not address solids handling. Chapter 7 of the Facilities Planning Report and Appendix F address the long term bio-solids approach for the city. This project is designed to improve the liquid stream capacity or load. The city is studying the recovery of fats, oils and grease to use as fuel. More information is available on our web page Grease to Green Energy.

HVNA: Will workers who build and run the system you are planning to hire be local or will you use workers from out of state? Are the Mortenson employees already being contracted from out of state or county? How much an hour are they paid?

Director Carlson: Designing and building a major infrastructure improvement such as Post Point WWTP requires a variety of talented workers. Mortenson Construction’s Bellevue office, located in state, serves as a general contractor/construction manager. construction of the project will require numerous subcontractors and will be bid publically per Washington State law. It is likely that a number of these subcontractors will be from the Bellingham area. As with any major capital improvement project, all contractors and sub contractors are required to submit affidavits assuring the payment of prevailing wage. A percentage of the work will go to woman and minority business enterprises and we will look toward local hiring. Wages paid depend on the specific profession, trade, skills and task. Operators are hired through a competitive process and we do not discriminate based on where an applicant lives.

HVNA: How many gallons of storm and sewer water in a day could the Mortenson system serve?

Director Carlson: Mortenson Construction is a company. The flow at the current plant varies from 10-72 million gallons per day. The planned Post Point WWTP improvements address treatment capacity based on the 20-year planning outlook as outlined in the Facilities Planning Report. The 60 percent secondary capacity increase (based on biochemical oxygen demand maximizes the use of existing liquid and solids stream treatment capacity at Post Point).

HVNA: What would the other energy requirements be?

Director Carlson: Energy is used to reduce solids. The entire wastewater treatment process is outlined on our web page.

HVNA: How many workers are required for the plant? What wages brackets are they?

Director Carlson: An operator manages both the water treatment and wastewater treatment plants simultaneously from the control room at Post Point. One operator works at a time and the plants operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Seven operators are needed to cover all the shifts. Wages are Pay Grades 25-16.

HVNA: Is the system Washington State Department of Energy already approved and if not, how long would DOE approval take?

Director Carlson: The Department of Ecology regulates wastewater treatment facilities throughout the state. The Post Point plant meets all DOE requirements.

HVNA: How pure would the discharge be? The DOE informs me you will be changing to an oxygenation system. How will that effect the discharge?

Director Carlson: The Post Point Wastewater Treatment Plant achieves 95 percent removal of organics and solids in the treated effluent. Effluent discharged to Bellingham Bay has a biochemical oxygen demand concentration of 9 parts per million and a total suspended solids concentration of 7 ppm. One system upgrade will convert oxygen generation to air. Air and oxygen provide the same function in the treatment process and this change does not affect the effluent.

HVNA: Do you have any concerns about earthquakes or global waters rising effecting the plant?

Director Carlson: Per Bellingham Municipal Code, all facilities are designed to meet the International Building Code 2009 structural requirements. The city of Bellingham also has a climate protection program.

HVNA: What would your and other workers benefits for the city’s choosing the Mortenson system be?

Director Carlson: The city is moving forward with the current improvements following extensive analysis of alternatives using the Triple Bottom Line + Technical evaluation method as outlined in the Facilities Planning Report. Triple bottom line evaluates environmental, social, economic and in this case technical costs and benefits to the entire community.

Henning Gatz questions and answers:

HVNA: You previously said that a Salnes system would/could cost the city $15 million. Is that figure still true? Is that the system you think would still be the best?

Mr. Gatz: $15 Million is a conservative estimate of the cost of a complete Salsnes headworks filter, including a building and installation, and a modular gasifier to process the captured solids. In my view, the Salsnes filter is the best large scale headworks filter system because not only does it reduce the load on the rest of the treatment plant by about 50 percent, it captures wastewater solids in a dry enough form that they are now suitable for conversion to energy through a thermal gasification system.

HVNA: Would the Salnes hire local workers to build and run?

Mr. Gatz: The design, installation and operation of both the Salnes filter and a modular gasifier would employ local people.

HVNA: How many workers are required for a plant you envision for Bellingham?

Mr. Gatz: 2-3 operators would be needed for each plant (Salnes filter plant and modular gassifier plant). Additional local workers would be hired for design and construction of the plants.

HVNA: How populated an area would the new system serve?

Mr. Gatz: This would serve the entire service area of the Post Point facility and handle the projected 2020 loading.

HVNA: How much storm and sewer water in a day could it serve?

Mr. Gatz: It would be sized to meet the expected flow. I believe they are using 24,000,000 gallons per day dry weather flow and 48,000,000 wet weather flow.

It is important to remember that the actual solids loading to the plant remains relatively constant. The main difference is that during dry weather it is more concentrated and during wet weather it is more dilute. Fortunately, the Salnes filter is self compensating; it handles more flow when the loading is more dilute.

HVNA: Would it be methane powered? How much of a savings would that mean?

Mr. Gatz: Once solids are captured by the Salnes and dewatered by the included dewatering equipment, the material has an energy value of about 1,500 kW per hour. This can be processed in an off-site gassifier (that could be sized to handle the wastewater solids from other Whatcom County treatment plants) and the electricity would be sold to Puget Sound Energy. The annual value of this electricity is about $700,000. Also important is that the current cost of natural gas to fire the existing Post Point solids incinerator would be saved. That is an additional $800,000 per year or so. Total energy benefit to the city of Bellingham would be about $1,500,000 per year. [ “Salnes filter technology is ten percent of the size of sedimentation and equal or better in solids separation. Salnes has been creating small plants and now is working on larger plants. In Guadalajara, it will serve 5 million people. Biogas and hydropower produce energy from waste and waste water.”]

HVNA: What would the energy requirements be?

Mr. Gatz: The energy required to run the Salnes filter system is low in comparison to other energy users at the plant.

HVNA: Is the system DOE approved and if not, how long would a DOE approval take?

Mr. Gatz: DOE approves any treatment plan on a case by case basis, there is no list of “pre-approved” processes for systems of this size. DOE requires an engineering report describing all aspects of the system and its integration into the existing system to be submitted by a registered professional engineer. There are many such qualified engineers in Bellingham, making it unnecessary to hire a non-local engineering consultant like Carollo with headquarters in Walnut Creek, Calif.

HVNA: How pure would the discharge be? How does it compare with the city of Bellingham?

Mr. Gatz: The discharge from the pre-filters would be more pure than the existing water entering the next stage of treatment. It would not be any better than the planned CEPT system proposed by Carollo. It will cost way less, and harvest an energy source while providing the load reduction required by the DoE rules.

HVNA: Does the system need to be set up close to the water way of discharge?

Mr. Gatz: The Salnes filter system would be located at the entry point of the water flow into the plant. It would be in a compact building that easily fits within the existing site boundaries.

HVNA: What would your benefits for the city’s choosing Salnes be?

Mr. Gatz: I would receive a 2 percent “finders fee” that I have already stated would be donated to a local organization like Sustainable Connections. More importantly, I would benefit from living in a city with a progressive sustainable wastewater treatment system that recovers the energy value now being flushed down the toilet.

HVNA: Are there more questions and answers you would like to address?

Mr. Gatz: Ecology teaches us that there is no such thing as waste. There are only wasted products. Everything in nature is food for something else, making our earth a balanced system. It is only mankind that throws the system out of balance by drawing on the earth’s stored resources to enable a high energy lifestyle. We are all aware of the limits to oil and coal as an energy source. To become more sustainable i.e. less dependent on non-renewable energy sources, we need to capture free energy where ever it is available. This includes solar, geothermal and waste to energy. Fortunately the technologies for this are available and affordable. It just requires the will of mankind to implement them. In addition to the 1,500 kW per hour that could be produced from Bellingham’s wastewater solids, we should be looking at capturing the energy in the more than 100 tons of municipal solid waste (garbage) being railed to landfill every day. This garbage could be converted into over 50 tons of refuse derived fuel every day, eliminating the burning of an equivalent amount of fuel oil or coal. §