Category: 1,500
– 4,999 Population
Winner or Honorable Mention: Winner
Title of the Project: City of Yelm Water Reclamation & Reuse Facility
City:
Population:
Name:
Title:
Phone:
City of Yelm
2,750
Shelly Badger
City Administrator
(360) 458-8405
Situated in the shadow of magnificent Mount Rainier, the City of Yelm, Washington, still wrestles with the effects of the ice age. The ancient prairie that is home to Yelm was created during the last ice age when the great Nisqually River, swollen with the outwash of melting glaciers, deposited coarse sands and gravels in the basin. The result is the beautiful Yelm prairie, still host to the Nisqually River as it meanders from the mountain to Puget Sound.
The work of the glaciers and the river left the prairie soils very porous; the groundwater table is quite shallow. Yelm draws its drinking water from this shallow aquifer. In the mid-1980s, routine testing revealed that nitrate levels were rising in the drinking water.
Studies indicated the nitrates were coming from high densities of septic tank leach fields; the soil structure simply could not keep up with the densities, and it was no longer providing adequate treatment prior to the effluent reaching the groundwater. The levels continued to rise until the Thurston County Health Department declared a health emergency and directed the City to correct the problem.
As an immediate fix to protect the health of the people, the City secured funding and, in
1992, began constructing a new septic tank effluent pump system and aerated lagoon treatment facility, with provisions for a discharge into the Centralia Power Canal (a diversion of the Nisqually River used to generate electricity) and an emergency discharge directly into the Nisqually River. The work was completed in 1994. The discharge permit to the canal and river, however, was only temporary. The Nisqually is one of only a very few rivers left in Washington that has water clean enough to sustain native chum and Chinook salmon runs. It then flows into Puget Sound, which is home to many important and valuable fish and shellfish species. If the discharge wasn't stopped, officials were concerned they would impact water quality to the point that the salmon runs would be disrupted, and the fish and wildlife in Puget Sound would be affected as well. The City had to find a way to stop the emergency discharge into the river and the power canal.
The question was, "How?"

The City saw an opportunity when the Washington Legislature passed the Reclaimed
Water Act, 90.46 RCW. This new Act encouraged the beneficial use of reclaimed wastewater and authorized and directed the Washington State Departments of Health and Ecology to establish the reclaimed water standards needed to develop such beneficial uses. In addition, this Act directed the departments to initiate a pilot-project program that would provide technical assistance to communities that wanted to pioneer wastewater reclamation in the state.
Yelm obtained pilot-project status in 1994. The goal: to make Yelm the first community in the State of Washington ever to successfully reclaim and reuse 100 percent of its wastewater. In other parts of the state, where water is scarce and crops depend on irrigation for months at a time, irrigation alone can consume the majority of reclaimed wastewater a community generates. In western Washington, however, wet winters and short irrigation seasons do not generate the same demand for year-round irrigation.
Yelm needed beneficial use options that were reliable year round.
Yelm knew that the plan to reuse the water could not be successful without the total acceptance of the residents of Yelm and the surrounding communities. The community itself was going to have to use the reclaimed water - all of it. The City and residents engaged in discussions to educate and to gather input. One aspect of our education plan was a play, "Down the Drain and Back Again", written by the high school drama club under the guidance of our engineer. This play was performed by our high school dramatists for all primary (K-4) students in the school district, which encompasses some
200 square miles. The primary students became our messengers and their reports at home elicited much interest and several ideas from parents. Intermediate pupils were invited to suggest a mascot for the project. "Mike the Pipe", a robot-looking figure made of reclaimed water purple pipe was selected. (Art students in the 5 th and 6th grade actually built this figure with the help of one of the city's public works employees. "Mike" proudly surveys the treatment facility!)
A citizens committee was formed to help us reach our constituents. The primary strategy in the public involvement process was to let the residents themselves indicate what uses of the water would be acceptable. For instance, residents indicated they would believe the water was environmentally friendly if fish could live in it, and suggested that the reclamation system include a fishpond. The system now features a catch-and-release fish pond stocked with rainbow trout in a new wetland park that is also part of the system, Cochrane Memorial Park.
The concept of a wetland park evolved to aid in public acceptance and to provide
"polishing” of reclaimed water prior to infiltration into the shallow aquifer. Sand filtration or constructed wetland treatment could provide this additional polishing. The City had eight acres of undeveloped land that had been donated for a park. The City proposed using the land to create a wetland park that would be designed to include water features, constructed wetlands and the public's recommended fishpond. The facility was

designed to be an attractive addition to the community and reinforce public acceptance of the project. It also serves as a year-round use for a portion of the reclaimed water.
With support from the Association of Washington Cities and by joining forces with
Sequim Ephrata, Royal City and Lincoln County, the City obtained a special appropriation from the Legislature. Grants and loans from the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, Rural Development, loans from the Department of Ecology and monies collected through a Local Improvement District formed by the citizens of Yelm shortly followed provided the remaining dollars necessary for the 9.6 million-dollar project.
The reuse system was completed in the fall of 1999 and 100% reuse of the water was achieved immediately. The system consists of three elements: 1) a state-of-the-art treatment facility that produces Class A reclaimed water, 2) a "purple pipe" distribution system that delivers the reclaimed water to the beneficial use sites, and 3) the beneficial use sites themselves, which are located throughout the town. Current uses include irrigation at the treatment facility itself, at Yelm City Park, Cochrane Park, at Yelm
Middle School, two churches and a residential vegetable garden. The reclaimed water is also used for school bus washing and hydrants are provided for fire protection.
The centerpiece of the system, Cochrane Memorial Park, is an eight-acre constructed wetland park with aquifer recharge. This wetland park includes a water feature for chlorine dissipation, a free- water surface wetland to further reduce chlorine levels and add nutrients back into the water before flowing to a catch-and-release fishpond.
Subsurface and surface flow wetland treatment ponds follow the fishpond to provide additional polishing and nutrient removal prior to aquifer recharge using specially designed rapid infiltration basins.
Future expansion of Yelm's reuse program includes irrigation of the Yelm to Tenino
Trailhead, additional constructed wetlands and another fishpond at the Yelm High
School, where students will have the opportunity to study the effects of reclaimed water upon the environment. This facility also will provide for aquifer recharge. Future commercial applications of reclaimed water include car washes and concrete production. Additional rapid infiltration basins will be provided to enable the City to expand the capacity of the reclamation system to reuse 100% of the flow from the treatment facility.
Other communities are now, or are planning to, emulate the process in Yelm. Yelm is currently looking at the use of reclaimed water to conserve potable water supplies because of the difficulty in obtaining water right permits to use potable ground water.
Other communities are looking at reclaimed water as a solution to concerns over water quality and in-stream flows due to the listing of certain runs of Chinook salmon as endangered species.

The City is hopeful, with the completion of its reuse facilities, that communities throughout Washington have significantly greater flexibility in how they develop their own wastewater reclamation and reuse facilities, and are able to integrate uses into almost ever aspect of community life.
The citizens of Yelm have thoroughly embraced the concept of incorporating reclaimed water into their daily lives. They're already trying their hand at catching rainbow trout in the new fishpond. They encourage their children to use the park because they believe it is a safe, healthy and fun place to play. Adults have incorporated the park into their exercise and recreation regimens; finding it a place of beauty and peace. A number of couples are even planning to hold their weddings in the park this summer - all examples of the success and acceptance of reclaimed water in the community.
The April Arbor Day event was held in Cochrane Park and while Mother Nature dumped buckets of rain on the celebration, spirits were not dampened. The local intermediate school choir sang, seedlings were handed out to community members and trees were exchanged and planted. In the background as the students were reading their "What does Arbor Day mean to me?" essays, a local fisherman, fly fishing in the reclaimed water fish pond proudly caught a very active 12-inch rainbow trout.