Stormwater Treatment in Eastsound Progresses with New Public Works Project

The County Public Works project to connect the East Sound outfall to the Mount Property

On Sept. 15, Orcas Excavators will begin work on the next phase of the Eastsound stormwater treatment project, the “Mount Property to Main Street Stormdrain Improvement” project, hooking up two pipes that will eventually carry treated water into the outfall on the beach across from the Outlook Inn.

Orcas Ex came in with a bid of $225,289, below the estimated cost of $276,000 for the two-week project, which will install approximately 240 feet of 48-inch stormdrain and 240 feet of 18-inch stormdrain.

Currently a 54-inch stormwater outfall discharges stormwater runoff from the Eastsound swale and the western portion of the Eastsound commercial core area.  The outfall pipe extends only from the shoreline – across from the Outlook Inn – across Main Steet.

According to the current project narrative issued by the County Public Works Department, “Significant development has occurred within the contributing drainage basin,” since the outfall was constructed in 1983, 27 years ago; “Stormwater conveyance and treatment needs to be provided for the upstream areas.”

At the Sept. 2  Eastsound Planning Review Committee (EPRC) meeting, Chair Gulliver Rankin noted that this project will be “working from the downstream up so that when they do the wetland treatment [plant],  they’ll have something to hook into.”

Rankin said that property owners Joe Cohen and Martha Farish granted an easement so that construction would not require cutting down trees on the Mount Property. The pipes will be buried.

This month’s project is one of two capital projects to be undertaken this year by the County Department of Public Works; the second project is the construction of a stormwater treatment facility on what is known as the “Mount Property.” This property runs approximately from behind the Orcas Athletic Club south to the Outlook Inn.

The Mount Property Treatment System Project “will consist of a constructed wetland and a pre-settling basin along with inlet and outlet discharge structures and conveyance piping. [It] will include habitat features and public access pathways.

“The treatment facility is necessary to provide stormwater treatment for existing streets and … proposed development upstream of the facility,” according to Public Works documents.

At the announcement of Phase 1 construction at last Thursday’s EPRC meet, Rankin decried the “level of communication from county staff” about the project, saying he’d been told “County staff is unable to put anything on paper.

“The monitoring system is falling off the map,” Rankin said.

“Public Works is focused on implementing projects already approved.” The Mount Property stormwater plan is based on the 2005 proposal written with contributions from County Public Works, Hart Pacific Engineering, Inc., MPD, Inc., and Herrera Environmental Consultants.

Phase 2 of the Mount Treatment System will connect runoff from Fern Street into treatment, and, said Rankin, is “predicated on funds being approved…from island-generated taxes.”

He added that County Stormwater Utility Manager Ed Hale intends to present the need to increase funding for public projects to the County Council.

The Herrera report summary states “recommends that the threshold to trigger runoff treatment requirements be made more stringent in those basins draining to East Sound… to protect the biodiversity of East Sound, which is the highest priority marine resource at risk from watershed development. East Sound is particularly vulnerable to stress from pollutants due to the poor circulation and low volume exchange in the vicinity of Eastsound. “