PUD explores Carlsborg sewer service

Thursday, October 19

Peninsula News Network

Clallam County Public Utility District leaders are seriously considering whether the PUD should get into the sewer business in Carlsborg, with a project that could expand the agency’s sewer connections from a few dozen to several hundred.

PUD recently launched a sewer feasibility study to look into the idea of providing sewer service in Carlsborg, where business and residential growth is putting added pressure on the use of on-site septic systems. County officials have said those systems are what’s causing problems with nitrates and other contamination in the soil and groundwater.

As part of that study, PUD will hold a public meeting this coming Thursday at Greywolf Elementary School to gauge support for the idea, discuss the problems that might be solved, and explain how the student will work.

That meeting will review how water reuse might play a role in handling wastewater west of the Dungeness and how to identify a preliminary boundary for sewer service if that is approved in the future.

The meeting starts at 6:30pm.

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While most people might think the PUD is primarily for electricity and water service, and more recently for its experiments in broadband, the law establishing the PUD actually authorized the agency to also provide sewer service.

But the utility hasn’t ventured too far into that business over the years, beyond providing wastewater disposal for a several dozen homes in the Deer Park Road area.

However, both of the candidates running for PUD Commissioner this fall… incumbent Ted Simpson and challenger Cindy Kelly… believe now is the time for the utility to be looking at providing sewer connections for other areas, including Carlsborg. During their “Questions for Candidates” taping this week, both Kelly and Simpson said sewer service is the kind of expansion the PUD might provide to help with the area’s growth.

PUD wouldn’t be the only local government to be in the sewer business if it expanded into Calrsborg. The cities of Port Angeles and Sequim run their own wastewater plants and Clallam County has a small system in the Clallam Bay-Sekiu area that its operated since the 1970s.

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KONP News

PUD hosting meeting on Carlsborg sewer idea

October 26th, 2006 - 5:49am

(Carlsborg) -- The Clallam PUD is hosting a meeting tonight in Carlsborg to address the feasibility of building a sewer system in the Urban Growth Area west of Sequim. The PUD's Tom Martin says meeting gets started at 6 tonight in the Graywolf Elementary School. Officials say they'd like to try a new system in the area that would promote economic growth and protect the environment. Martin says a system could go in that would create reusable water from it effluent. He says tonight's meeting is a chance for PUD and county officials and consultants to hear what people might want in the system. It's the first of three sessions on the Carlsborg UGA sewer system feasibility study. A timetable of future events between the feasibility study and the possible construction of a sewer system in the Carlsborg area will be presented tonight. Martin says the next meeting will probably be in December after officials have had a chance to think about tonight's public comments. A final meeting will be scheduled after the results of the study come in next March.