Furious Cowlitz Tribe representatives ripped into Clark County public health officials Wednesday for stating that the injection well wastewater disposal system the tribe is building to serve its future casino is a risk to public health.
Dr. Alan Melnick, the county’s public health officer, recommended last week that the county allow the tribe to connect to La Center’s sewer system because the injection wells wouldn’t be monitored locally and could contaminate the Troutdale aquifer if they failed.
After a long discussion, the five county councilors, who comprise the Board of Public Health, seemed poised to adopt a resolution to allow the sewer hookup — but not mandate it.
Then, tribal leaders told them in rapid-fire succession what they thought of the resolution.
“It’s an insult to the tribe,” tribal member David Barnett said. “There are so many insults and inaccuracies in this. … This is all about politics. It’s not about science. … The last thing we want to do is pollute the aquifer. We’re a tribe, we’re not Exxon.”
Stephen Horenstein, the tribe’s Vancouver attorney, told Melnick, “I think your testimony today is the height of arrogance. … You don’t understand our system, or you’re choosing to ignore it.”
The injection wells and water reclamation plant, which are expected to cost nearly $15 million, are already 35 percent complete, according to the tribe. At this point, the tribe no longer wants to connect to La Center’s sewer system because the casino’s treatment system is “the safest, most state-of-the-art and high-tech system in existence,” Barnett said.
Approved by EPA
The injection well system is designed to pump up to 400,000 gallons a day of wastewater treated to drinking water standards deep underground. The federal Environmental Protection Agency approved the project, which is similar to those used successfully in other places around the state.
The injection wells are controversial because the Troutdale Aquifer System, which supplies 99 percent of Clark County’s drinking water, lies roughly 120 to 220 feet below the injection site. The tribe, however, has promised to ensure the discharged water meets or exceeds all local, state and federal standards as required by the Safe Drinking Water Act. The treatment system’s membrane bioreactors remove between 80 percent and 99 percent of personal care products, according to Parametrix, the tribe’s consultant for the project.
“No public system in Clark County can make this same claim for safety, and no other system in the county protects drinking water from these products and drugs,” Barnett said. “Clearly, the only emergency exists with the uninformed, and once they are given the facts, the science wins out.”
Because the federal government has jurisdiction over reservations, the EPA would monitor the injection well system, not the county or state. However, the tribe and EPA would share wastewater data with the county and the public, Barnett said.
“If I have to choose between the EPA and the county health department on monitoring the groundwater, I’d pick the EPA any day,” Horenstein said.
No apology
The casino project has been controversial since it was announced a decade ago. It was formally opposed by the county and the city of Vancouver, Oregon tribes that own casinos, a citizens group that includes Columbian Publisher Scott Campbell, and the operators of the cardrooms in nearby La Center. Just this week, Vancouver dropped its formal opposition.
The tribe was forced to find its own wastewater treatment solution after the courts ruled last year that extending a sewer line beyond La Center’s urban growth boundary would violate Clark County’s planning policies. But a state law that addresses urban growth offers this exception: “In general, it is not appropriate that urban governmental services be extended to or expanded in rural areas except in those limited circumstances shown to be necessary to protect basic health and safety and the environment.” That means the county Board of Health could declare an emergency and allow the sewer hookup.
Tribal leaders said that wouldn’t make them immune from legal challenges from the cardrooms.
“It is galling to have to appear in front of the county and now have the county try to shoestring some face-saving idiotic thing out of public necessity,” Phil Harju, vice chairman and general counsel for the tribe, told the board. “You have cost the city and the residents of La Center, you’ve cost the tribe millions of dollars.”
Melnick was fueling the public misperception about the injection well system, Horenstein said. If the board passed an emergency ordinance out of “public necessity,” he said, “the next lawsuit will be right around the corner.”
Board Chair Marc Boldt demanded that Horenstein apologize for “going after” Melnick, but the attorney refused.
“I will not apologize for his arrogant and inaccurate testimony,” Horenstein said.
“This is arrogant,” Boldt said angrily, tossing his pen on the table.
Councilor David Madore urged everyone to calm down. What is needed, he said, is to open the channels of communication.
“The irony of the discussion today is what we really wanted to do, is we wanted to help,” Councilor Julie Olson said.
Horenstein wasn’t having it.
“The county has been beating the you-know-what out of the tribe for the last 10 to 12 years,” he said. “You can’t beat your wife for 10 years and expect her to be loving and trusting overnight.”
The Board of Health will hold a work session about the resolution within the next month, Boldt said.
