A Washington state Department of Ecology study thats nearly completed could restrict further discharges into the Spokane River by municipal wastewater-treatment facilities and two private companies.


Such new limits could force dischargers to make substantial upgrades to their systems, and those improvements could cost in the tens of millions of dollars, says Jim Correll, Spokane-area manager for Denver-based CH2M Hill Inc. and program manager in charge of the city of Spokanes wastewater-treatment capital improvement plan.


Those upgrades could translate into higher sewer bills for businesses and residents in the city and a large percentage of Spokane County, Correll says.


In an extreme scenario outlined by the city, Ecology would halt discharges altogether, and the city would have to spend about $800 million to set up an alternative system for disposing of its treated wastewater.


Ken Merrill, a program manager for Ecology whos involved in the study, says that judging from raw data gathered for the study, a more likely scenario is that discharges wouldnt be allowed to increase much over current levels and might even be decreased somewhat.


No matter what, he says, we (as a metropolitan area) are probably looking at spending more money for wastewater in the future.


Because of potentially big price tags for upgrades, Correll says dischargers are monitoring the study closely and have hired water-quality experts to make sure the study is being done correctly. He says the city and the other dischargersKaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp., Inland Empire Paper Co., and the Liberty Lake Water and Sewer Districtare imploring Ecology to make sure the studys science and data are sound. While municipal wastewater-treatment facilities in Coeur dAlene and Post Falls arent obligated to comply with Washington state ecology regulations, they account for some of the biochemical oxygen-demanding chemicals, or BODs, that are discharged into the river and are participating in the dischargers studies.


Im afraid the answer has been predisposed, Correll says. Is there the potential for a rush to judgment? I dont know. Im asking the question.


Bruce Rawls, utilities director for Spokane County, says the county plans to spend $120 million on wastewater-treatment upgradesincluding for construction of a $100 million treatment plant that, as planned, would discharge into the riverin the next 15 to 20 years. He says, On one hand, the last thing we want to do is anything that would harm the Spokane River. On the other hand, he says, the county doesnt want Ecology to be so conservative that it restricts relatively harmless discharges.


Wayne Andresen, president and general manager of Inland Empire Paper, says that company installed an advanced wastewater-treatment system in 1989 and made some upgrades to it a few years ago. He says the company likely would have to cut back on discharges during periods of low flow, but otherwise, its system should be able to meet any reasonable standard.


Whether Ecologys new limits will be reasonable remains to be seen, Andresen says. If Inland Empire Paper feels the limits are too strict, he says the company will oppose them.


Kaiser and other dischargers couldnt be reached immediately for comment.


The Ecology study, called the Spokane River Dissolved Oxygen Study, is determining how much ammonia and other BODs that dischargers can release into the river without harming the fish populations there and in Long Lake.


Merrill says most of those chemicals are taken out of wastewater during the treatment process, but some remain in the treated water thats dumped into the river.


The BODs deplete the oxygen supply in the water, which puts stress on the fish that live there, Merrill says. That, he says, can limit spawning activity and in extreme cases can cause fish to die.


Current BOD restrictions are pegged to federal limits that are enforced by the state. Merrill says all of the dischargers perform well within those limits.


To get data for the current study, Ecology monitored the levels of BODs in the Spokane River in 1999, a year in which the river had above-average water flow, and in 2000, a medium flow year. For the study, it also is using data that the dischargers gathered in those years, as well as a study that Eastern Washington University conducted in 1991, a low-flow year.


All of those data are being plugged into a computer model that will estimate how many pounds of BODs could be discharged into the river during a 10-year low-flow period without hurting the fish habitat.


Ecology plans to publish a data summary by early November and a technical report next March that will include a preliminary recommendation for a so-called total maximum daily load, which is a regulatory term. After a series of public hearings, the maximum load likely will be finalized in late 2002, Merrill says.


Once a maximum load is established, each discharger will be allocated a maximum amount of BODs it can discharge into the river.


Dischargers commissioned their own study through which they gathered data on BOD levels in the Spokane River this past summer. Merrill says flow rates on the Spokane River were at 30-year lows this year, and 10 percent to 20 percent of the rivers overall flow came from the dischargers during the summer.


Correll says the data the dischargers gathered could be used to calibrate a computer model to make sure the outcome is accurate, and the dischargers are lobbying for their data to be used for that reason. Comparing outcomes when the river was high, in 1999, and extremely low, this year, would be beneficial, he says, contending that this years data should carry heavy weight in the study.


Merrill says the 2001 data gathered by dischargers will be taken into account, but Ecology hasnt decided exactly how it will use the information as it sets total maximum daily load limits.


Correll says that if maximum loads for the citys municipal wastewater plant are set so that it can only discharge at its current volume of BODs, with no room for growth, the city will be able to operate without any adverse effect for the foreseeable future. Its treatment plant is undergoing $68 million in upgrades that Correll says will decrease the amount of BODs discharged while increasing treatment capacity.


The city also plans to add effluent filtration at the plant in the next 15 years, and that filtration could lower BOD levels even further. Such a project could be given a higher priority if BOD levels need to be decreased, Correll says.


If discharging were restricted altogether, the city would have to discharge treated wastewater elsewhere, perhaps to irrigate golf courses and cemeteries, for example. Such a system, as noted earlier, could be highly expensive.


Rawls says the county must accelerate its plans to develop a plant. He says the county expects to be using its full capacity at the city plant by the end of 2007, and it will take that long for a new plant to be developed.


We dont have the luxury of a year or two to wait for the Ecology study, Rawls says. We have to move forward now.


Rawls says the county hopes by late next year to select a sitepossibly just downstream from Upriver Dam in the Spokane Valleyand to obtain the permits it needs to develop the plant. It hopes to finish engineering work on the plant the following year and start construction in 2005.


Such a plant would discharge treated wastewater into the river, but Rawls says the county plans to use effluent filtration, which will restrict BODs from the start.