Cleaning and Restoring Water Resources for Our Communities Center - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Cleaning and Restoring Water Resources for Our Communities Center for Environmental Law and Policy December 5, 2019 Wendy Steffensen Environmental Project Manager LOTT Clean Water Alliance

What is LOTT?  Regional wastewater utility • L acey • O lympia • T umwater • T hurston County  Governmental, non-profit corporation  Population served = 125,000

Where is LOTT? Seattle Olympia and Budd Inlet Treatment Plant

Budd Inlet Treatment Plant

Budd Inlet Martin Way Reclaimed Reclaimed Water Plant Water Plant

Reclaimed Water  Treated to a very high standard: Class A Reclaimed Water •  Highly regulated and monitored  Approved for any use except drinking

Why Reclaimed Water? Public Values:  Meet future wastewater needs  Treat wastewater as a valuable resource  Maximize benefits to the environment  Provide multiple community benefits Long-Term Strategy:  Expand production and use of reclaimed water  Use reclaimed water to replenish groundwater

Reclaimed Water Lacey Program Framework LOTT Tumwater Olympia Use as the Use Generator Thurston County

Hawks Prairie Ponds and Recharge Basins

Reclaimed Water Strategy Original Strategy New considerations Wastewater system capacity as primary driver Centralized facilities are more cost effective Additional drivers for expansion: ► Timing dependent on TMDL and other factors ► Partners need for reclaimed water ► Expand incrementally over time ► Additional community benefit ► Small reclaimed water satellite plants throughout service area

Reclaimed Water Strategy ► Treatment ► Conveyance and Disposition? • Quality and Quantity? • Use or infiltration site? • New facility? • What location? Additional treatment? Length of pipeline? • • ► Master planning to update strategy in 2020 Department of Ecology TMDL • Reclaimed Water Infiltration Study results • • Partner Needs WRIA 13 Watershed Restoration Needs •

Reclaimed Water Budd Inlet Reclaimed Water Plant Project Ideas ► Groundwater infiltration • Above ground basins • Subsurface perforated pipe Tumwater Tank ► Wetland augmentation Henderson North Site ► Streamflow augmentation Henderson South Site South Deschutes Site

Opportunities and Barriers Opportunities: Barriers: ► ► Sites that meet multiple benefits challenging to find Planning effort coincides with: • Ongoing work to locate infiltration sites ► Cost of conveying water is high • Phase two master planning in 2020 • Pipeline • RWIS conclusion in 2020 • Pumping costs ► Multiple community benefits ► Timing may not align for LOTT and offset projects • Meet future LOTT system capacity needs ► Temperature can be an issue for streamflow • Offset impacts of water withdrawals

Questions? Wendy Steffensen Environmental Project Manager lottcleanwater.org wendysteffensen@lottcleanwater.org

Reclaimed Water Infiltration Study ► What chemicals are present in wastewater, reclaimed water, groundwater, and surface waters? ► When reclaimed water is used to replenish groundwater, what happens to residual chemicals? ► Are there risks to public health and the environment? ► What can be done to reduce those risks?

• Water Quality Characterization Reclaimed Water 2015- 2017 Infiltration Study • Treatment Effectiveness Evaluation 2018- 2019 • Risk Assessment 2019 • Cost Benefit Analysis 2019- 2020 • Community Conversations 2020