Yelm's Wastewater Reuse Projectby Eric Miller Imagine a community in which at the center sits a trout pond, and an artificial wetland. Where local parks and playfields are green and lush during even the hottest and driest of summers. Where the local golf course and agricultural fields are watered using water that is recycled. Sometime around the year 2000 the city of Yelm will (hopefully) have on line a brand spanking new wastewater reuse facility that will make this vision a reality. It will be a model program and its applications could lead to substantial water savings. Currently the city has a Sewage treatment capacity of three hundred thousand gallons per day. With the fast paced growth in the Yelm area this capacity will soon be exceeded on a regular basis. The State has funded an expansion of the existing plant so that the new capacity will be one million gallons per day. This is considered Phase 1 of the project. Phase II of the project will deal with the wastewater reuse component. Currently Yelm's wastes are treated and then the effluent is sent into the Nisqually River. The city has signed an agreement with Thurston County to remove all effluent from the river at their earliest convenience. What this means is that Yelm will soon have over three hundred thousand gallons of water a day to find a use for and in the near future possibly over one million gallons per day. Yelm will also have to increase its supply of potable water (high quality drinking water) to meet new demands from a growing population. By reusing wastewater and substituting it for potable water in applications such as irrigation and industrial use, Yelm will be able to stretch its supply of potable water. The city currently has plans to use reclaimed water to irrigate agricultural fields, school playfields, and the local golf course. In addition the plan includes building an artificial wetland at Yelm High School. This will be monitored by the students in the science and agriculture programs at the school. It will be designed to enhance wildlife habitat and will feature native plants and waterfowl. There are also plans to construct fish ponds at a local park which will be open to the community for recreational fishing. Excess water beyond the needs of the previous projects will be sent to infiltration basins to help recharge the groundwater. This will make possible the elimination of surface water discharge back into the Nisqually River. If there is still water left over then direct well injection into the groundwater will be used. Recent legislation makes this method a possibility. As water supplies in the Puget Sound Region become stretched thinner and thinner with growing demand, Yelm plans to reclaim and reuse its wastewater and preserve its potable supplies. These two goals seem like an appropriate vision for the future. Eric Miller is a staff writer for the Green Pages.
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