Bellingham OKs this new sewage treatment but ‘forever chemicals’ questions remain
Bellingham will replace the incinerators that burn solid waste left over from the sewage-treatment process at the Post Point Wastewater Treatment Plant and move ahead with a $220 million plan to build anaerobic digesters that turn those solids into nutrient-rich material that can be spread on crops.
But the City Council — concerned about heavy metals and “forever chemicals” in those solids — wants to take a closer look at what it will do with that material after the digestion process, and re-examine whether it wants to sell the so-called biosolids for fertilizer or dispose of them in another way.
“What is it going to cost us to truck it to Eastern Washington? What if we do have to go to landfill? Because I’m not comfortable putting this product on our farmlands at this point,” Councilwoman Lisa Anderson said at a committee meeting before the final vote Monday, April 25.
“What other areas besides crop production could this be put toward and what would it cost to get it there? Because that has to be part of our consideration,” Anderson said.
In a unanimous vote Monday evening, the council voted to continue plans to replace the aging incinerators with digesters that use bacteria to break down the biosolids left when water is filtered out of sewage.
At the same time, the council will start a new outreach process and examine public opinions toward using the leftover solid waste as fertilizer, as had previously been considered, or whether the solids will go to a landfill, be changed into natural gas or burned into charcoal.
After the digestion process is finished, the solid waste can be used as compost and fertilizer, and that’s how Bellingham was planning to dispose of its waste — by selling it for use on crops and gardens.
Blaine, Ferndale and Lynden already do that to varying degrees, the council was told in a presentation on April 11.
But some residents, and the Bellingham-based environmental group RE Sources for Sustainable Communities, are expressing doubts about its use to grow food because of possible toxins — even though the state Department of Ecology and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have approved its use for commercial agriculture and home gardens.
Not moving forward with digestion would “close some doors” for possible biosolid uses in the future, said Eric Johnston, director of the Public Works Department.
“Perhaps there will be a healthy viable product that we’ll be able to do land-spreading but I also continue to have that concern that we’re going to find out about pharmaceuticals or some other kind of chemical — like (forever chemicals were) unknown to us five years ago — being a big concern five years from now,” Anderson said.
“I don’t have so much of an issue continuing as long as we have additional options that we can pivot to,” she said.
