Tieton To Take Control Of Sewer Plant to Prevent Disaster

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Story Published: Aug 6, 2009 at 5:19 PM PST

By Peter Bukowski

When the commissioners in charge of the Cowiche Sewage treatment plant retired, they left the district with no decision makers. The city of Tieton may be the only hope left of preventing a disaster.

"Taking the plant is simply a matter of somebody has to make decisions, and the city of Tieton is the only entity according to the inter-local agreement who can do that," said Tieton Mayor Stan Hall.

If it weren't for a potentially dangerous sludge build up, and a possible leak into local waterways, the Mayor wouldn't be treating this as a near crisis.

"I didn't want it now, tomorrow or next year or ever. My wish is to have commissioners in place to operate the district.

Unless they county appoints commissioners, the sewage treatment plant will remain in limbo until the city can take control.

New commissioners will be voted in this coming November and will take over in January. In the meantime, the one man who now oversees the whole operation says, relax.

"I can guarantee to the community there is absolutely no threat of sludge entering cowiche creek at all"

But there's still the clean-up.... thousands of gallons sludge and thousands of dollars in clean-up costs for Tieton. And all this weighed against the cost of doing nothing at all.

"being able to have the council or the mayor, or people who can sign the contract, so it's doesn't effect the economy of the upper valley"

While it is far from a done deal, the city of Tieton is planning to take control of the plant and make sure this part of the county doesn't find itself waste deep in trouble. PB AN)))

To take possession of the plant, Tieton must get approval from both the county and the department of ecology.

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