The Star - News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area

The engineer in charge of the new wastewater treatment plant in Coulee Dam says funds may be available to pay for the extra lift station needed to bring Elmer City’s effluent to the plant.

With costs estimated at three quarters of a million dollars, that could be a big help to Coulee Dam, which authorized Varela engineer Daniel Cowger to look into possible finance option with the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s Rural Development fund, which financed the rest of the plant.

Cowger told the town council Wednesday night that his conversations with key people at that agency indicated they should apply for grant funding for the project, and that adding another lift station to serve the west side of town would actually help the application’s viability.

That station’s cost was estimated at half a million dollars several years ago.

Cowger said the agency had put a 40-percent threshold on grant funding over the entire wastewater treatment plant funding package. The town’s funding is currently only at a 26-percent grant, he said.

The project, originally scheduled for completion last August, is currently scheduled for completion in the spring, including demolition of what remains of the old plant. The new plant is scheduled to come online Dec. 5, but a “bio maturity” period will take until mid-January, after which the plant will be ramped up.

Cowger said several factors have contributed to delays, including a lack of workers the contractor could hire who met tribal “TERO” requirements, the new lift station, and Nespelem Valley Electric requirements.