The Wahkiakum County Eagle - Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891

Last week, the Department of Ecology (DOE) issued its final Determination of Nonsignificance (DNS) in the application of Evergreen Septic of Seaview for the permit it needs to apply Class B biosolids on 80 acres of Philip and Sulema Zerr’s ranch in Grays River.

Peter Lyons, DOE’s regional manager, wrote in the DNS that his agency has addressed the comments and criticisms received during a meeting held at Grays River Grange in May. His statement reads, “Comments received during the public review process criticized the Ecology checklist for not including threatened salmon known to inhabit the Grays River.”

The pubic meeting mentioned in the DNS in May actually drew about 100 concerned residents to the Grays River Grange. The concerns expressed were about more than salmon.

Citizen comments to the DOE during the meeting included statements on soil pollution, river pollution, air pollution, and damage to wildlife and water fowl.

Attendees also mentioned aquifer contamination and air pollution, and participants asked questions and gave comments about the long term effects of human exposure to Class B biosolids and the build up of heavy metal contaminants and pharmaceuticals in the soil, water, fish and fowl.

None of this is mentioned in the final DNS released last Thursday.

“The lead agency for this proposal has determined that spreading Class B biosolids does not have a probable significant adverse impact on the environment,” Lyons wrote.

The DNS also includes a clause that reads: An Environmental Impact Statement is not required for this project under law.

The Wahkiakum County Eagle requested an updated version of the Evergreen Septic’s environmental impact statement checklist.

This checklist, part of Evergreen Septic’s permit application to apply biosolids on the Zerr ranch, reflects changes to the original permit requested by either Evergreen Septic or the DOE. The checklist is mentioned in the final DNS. The DOE said this list was revised on June 17.

The updated checklist by Evergreen Septic contains a request: On page two, item 7, in which Evergreen request that it be allowed to place a waste storage tank on the Zerr ranch.

During a phone interview, Claude Noyes, owner of Evergreen Septic, said, “The placement of the tank was part of the original permit. It will be 5,000 gallon tank. We want to sit the tank on the Zerr property and leave it there so our smaller trucks can fill it as needed,” he said.

Noyes said the tank it would make it easier for Evergreen Septic to spread about 30,000 gallons of Class B biosolids a month of Zerr property during the summer months.

On page 3, item 11, of the revised checklist Evergreen is asked to give a description of the proposed size of the land application site. Evergreen requested that it be allowed to, “Land apply the septage on approximately 250 acres in the Grays River application site (the Zerr ranch).”

The Department of Ecology qualifies the Evergreen request saying that “...only about 80 acres are proposed for application at this time.”

When interviewed, Noyes said he wasn’t aware his updated permit checklist created a potential that would allow Evergreen to spread Class B biosolids over on the additional acreage of the Zerr ranch in the future.

“I didn’t know about that”, said Noyes. “I just know the original permit requested we be allowed to spread our septage on a little over 79 acres at the application site.”

The DOE also said it would not act to adopt the revised checklist as part of the Evergreen permit for fourteen days. The information is available from the DOE upon request.