By Devon O’Neil

When the Washington Department of Ecology called four years ago about a sewage problem, Long Beach City Administrator David Glasson knew he was about to confront a sticky, if not stinky, situation. The Pacific County city had been spraying bio- solids (a.k.a. “sludge” left over from the wastewater treatment process) onto a forested swath on a small oceanfront peninsula since the 1980s, adding nutrients to nourish the soil. But the state had determined those nutrients weren’t being adequately absorbed during winter, which left the water table at risk of contamination. Long Beach—and its neighbor three miles to the south, Ilwaco, facing a similar issue—had to find another solution. So the city commissioned a study that determined the most ecologically sound answer was to build a Class A biosolids plant.

Municipal sewage would be treated to exceptional quality (EQ) compost—cooked in an oven and mixed with wood chips and sawdust until it was ready to be used as topsoil.

Glasson, elected officials, and staff from the city’s sewer depart- ment visited an existing biosolids plant up the coast in Westport a half-dozen times to help inform the design and operation of their own facility. One crucial lesson Long Beach learned from Westport was that salt from sea air could cause corrosion and reduce the life span of the investment. So instead of a conventional open-to-the-air contrap- tion, Long Beach decided to build a self-contained system with only two precedents worldwide (one in Michigan, one in Poland). “You want something like an oven where it’s sealed and the temperature is main- tained, and it’s all controlled by air flow,” Glasson says.

The price tag was precipitous, but the city secured over $7 million in grant funding from the state (including a $1.8 million grant, with the balance in revolving and forgivable loans) to be augmented by rate increases. Instead of the typical 2 to 4 percent annual increase, Long Beach residents saw an 11 percent increase for the first two years, followed by a 4 percent adjustment.

We’re looking at selling the capacity to other cities that need to process their sludge. But we have to know what’s in their sludge before we accept it.

Ilwaco (population: 940) had initially considered partnering with Long Beach by anteing in $25,000 toward the plant’s construction, then paying Long Beach roughly $70,000 a year to process its biosolids. Instead, Ilwaco opted to upgrade its own treatment plant, store its biosolids for longer, and reduce the frequency of their use as fertilizer. “It wouldn’t sur- prise me if in the next decade we see things changing there,” says Ilwaco Treasurer Holly Beller, who notes that the city may have to send its biowaste to Long Beach in the future if the farmland it uses gets devel- oped for housing, another critical local need.

So Long Beach is hoping to entice municipal customers from Washington and Oregon to help cover the $425,000 annual cost of operating its plant. “We’re looking at selling the capacity to other cities that need to process their sludge,” Glasson explains. “But we have to know what’s in their sludge before we accept it.”

Meanwhile, the city’s plant continues to churn out a steady stream of compost, which is sold most of the year (typically to construction companies that purchase in bulk) but given away to anyone during an annual spring awareness event: over two week- ends in May and June, the city distributed more than 600 cubic yards to local homeowners (who welcome the freebie as a trade-off for higher utility rates) and others who came from as far as 50 miles away.

And city officials from Utah have flown in to observe the process in hopes of replicating it, Glasson says. “We’re passing along what we’ve learned to anybody who’s interested.”

For more information: longbeachwa.gov