Polluted waterfront parks get help from state

UNION – When George Landram and his daughter, Kaytee, pulled into Twanoh State Park for a weekend of camping along bucolic Hood Canal, they got an unhappy surprise.

The campground was closed for the season.

The problem: Its aging sewage system is shot and its beach has been closed to shellfish harvesting since last fall after inspectors found fecal coliform bacteria along the 3,167 feet of saltwater shoreline.

Help is on the way. Twanoh is one of 24 state parks along Puget Sound and Hood Canal, including Camano Island State Park, that are slated for $17 million worth of clean-water projects, starting this summer.

Every state park along the canal and the sound with serious problems – 24 of the 34 parks – will be fixed. Visitors use the waterfront parks extensively – 12 million visits per year.

It’s a new twist to state government’s escalating campaign to clean up Puget Sound. The idea is for government to serve as a role model, rather than being part of the problem.

“We don’t want to be in the position of do-as-I-say, not-as-I do,” said Gov. Chris Gregoire, who has appointed a Puget Sound Partnership of government, tribal and citizen groups to ramp up cleanup and protection of this tarnished crown jewel. The former ecology chief is making this a signature issue of her administration.

“It’s the right first step,” said state Rep. Hans Dunshee, D-Snohomish, sponsor of the park plan. “The state ought to get its act together before it asks others to fix up sewer and septic systems next door.”

Project director Larry Fairleigh joked that the plan amounts to burying $17 million underground and that nothing will look different. But he and cleanup leaders hope that it’s a teachable moment as the visitors watch the backhoes and bulldozers at work.

Projects include hooking up parks to municipal sewage systems, new drain fields and wastewater system, reuse of wastewater, repair of sewage pumping stations and trailer dumping.

State parks director Rex Derr said rangers and interpretive signs and materials will explain what’s happening and why waterfront users and homeowners alike need to change their polluting ways.

“I’d like to see them put up big signs that say ‘We’re cleaning up our act,’” said Dunshee, the House construction budget chairman whose previous career was designing septic systems.

The projects were a surprise addition to the budget this year, the result of a creative bit of logrolling in the Legislature. Western Washington legislators were willing to vote for $200 million worth of water storage projects in Eastern Washington, but wanted a little pork of their own.

House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, suggested Hood Canal cleanup. Dunshee and the governor’s office then latched onto the idea of fixing the state parks’ septic and wastewater systems.

Parks, delighted at the sudden attention after years of lobbying for maintenance money, happily produced a list. It was fully covered in the construction budget that took effect July 1.

Environmentalists and parks advocates are tickled with the infusion of cash. Now they hope to make it into a “model neighbors” demonstration project that will warrant national attention.

Derr said parks and other resource agencies across America have been struggling to improve their environmental practices, including sewage and wastewater treatment, storm water and fertilizer runoff, and appropriate use of waterfront. So far, there have been few breakthroughs to crow about and mostly, public users tend to pollute.

“We’ll see our parks as models of Sound-friendly development, low-impact use of the water, where the state isn’t contributing to the problem,” said Brad Ack, director of the multi-agency Puget Sound Action Team.

The park projects, including the one at Twanoh, get under way shortly, as soon as permits are in hand. Most are expected to be completed within a year.

Most will continue operations with only minimal disruptions.

At Twanoh, between Union and Belfair on the south side of Hood Canal, some of the would-be campers said they’re unhappy with the camping closure, but understand.

After cooling off, an unhappy Landram, 49, a Boeing machinist from Des Moines, turned and drove home.

“My initial reaction was disappointment, but then when I got the explanation, well, OK,” he said.

The situation was both a nuisance and a teaching point for Ron Nilsen, who runs a four-year environmental program at Bellarmine Prep in Tacoma. He had 80 marine biology students in wet suits and snorkel gear checking out the marine life in the tidelands.

The annual outdoor classroom week usually includes camping at Twanoh, but this time they were but forced to bus in each day from another park. Still, the closure brings home Nilsen’s lessons about humans’ impact on the water.

“What a match – it really shows the kids what we’ve been talking about, this obvious concern about what we’re doing to Puget Sound,” he said.

Parks benefiting from state funding

A quick look at park projects:

Twanoh – Replace wastewater and sewage system, $1 million.

Dosewallips – Replace wastewater system, purchase property for drain field and upgrade restrooms, $1.85 million.

Belfair – Upgrade wastewater treatment and add utility hookups to campground, $700,000.

Potlatch – Hook up to Minerva Beach sewage system or devise another plan, improve handling of storm water runoff, move staff housing away from salmon-bearing stream, $1.05 million.

Kitsap Memorial – Renovate RV dump station and drain field, $500,000.

Scenic Beach – Replace wastewater collection and treatment system, $900,000.

Shine – Add new comfort station, drain field and storm water system, $850,000.

Pleasant Harbor – Add new comfort station and improve storm water management, $150,000.

Triton Cove – Improve storm water management and replace creosote pilings, $170,000.

Sequim Bay – Connect to city of Sequim sewers, $925,000.

Fort Flagler – Add new treatment system, $750,000.

Larabee – Expand treatment system and eliminate outfall into Puget Sound, $750,000.

Fort Worden – Replace beach area sewage pump station, $300,000.

Camano Island – Improve water and sewage treatment system, $300,000.

Deception Pass – Connect Cornet Bay with Navy’s sewer system, $350,000.

Possession Point – Install new wastewater collection and treatment system and upgrade comfort station in parking area, $250,000.