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

It's going to be a busy fall.

Our county board of commissioners will act on an ordinance to regulate the application of biosolids--treated human waste--this month. If they adopt it, and I'll bet they will, it could send the county into court with the state Department of Ecology.

Officials and citizens are looking for some way to control or restrict the application of biosolids. A Seaview firm wants to spread them on a Grays River farm, and Westend residents are leery of the prospect, fearing the biosolids will adversely impact wildlife and that they could contaminate the Valley's ecosystem or even the community water system.

Prosecuting Attorney Dan Bigelow has advised the board that it has little power to regulate biosolids; that power lies with the state Department of Ecology. The department has told the county it feels the proposed ordinance is unconstitutional in just trying to prohibit application of lower class biosolids within 1000 feet of bodies of water. The county could be sued, Bigelow said. It won't cost much, but it will set a precedent for the rest of the state.

I think the commissioners will follow the will of the people who appeared at the public hearing and adopt the ordinance, and it will be a symbolic effort.

Farmers who apply Class A biosolids will continue to do so, as they've been doing on Puget Island. Ecology may bring the county to court and force a change in the ordinance. The future will bring other pressures to change the ordinance as society and technology advance.

So, it may be politically expedient for the commissioners to adopt the ordinance, but I doubt we've heard the end of it.