Spokane County has begun construction on its $1.4 million Northside Decant Facility, the first such facility being built by the county, at 15 E. Farwell Road, says Wendy Iris, project manager for the county. 

“It’s going to serve as a regional facility for North Spokane,” she says.

Currently, there are two other such facilities in the region, Iris says: one a city of Spokane Valley-operated facility at Pines and Montgomery and the other a city of Spokane facility located north of Sprague Avenue and west of the old Playfair racetrack site. 

The county’s facility will be used for decanting—or accepting and treating contaminated liquids, sediments, and other solid waste transported there by—vactor trucks, which are large trucks that use a heavy-duty vacuum to clean out storm sewers, Iris says. Debris picked up by street sweepers also will be processed there. 

At the facility, the trucks will dump their loads on a 100-foot-by-200-foot concrete slab, which is covered by a roof supported by beams.  

“From there, gravity kind of takes over and the liquids separate and go through a set of catch basins that will further settle some of the minor solids that remain,” Iris says. The solids that don’t make it through to the catch basins will be disposed of separately, she says. 

“Then, that water goes through an oil-water separator, then goes into a bio-infiltration swale, which will uptake any of the remaining nutrients in the water,” she says. 

The site also will have asphalt paving and utilities such as water, power, and a future sewer connection, Iris says. Construction on the project began in mid-November, Iris says. The project is slated to be completed in late spring. 

Three-quarters of the project is being funded by the Washington state Department of Ecology, she says, with the remaining quarter coming from local stormwater fees. 

Anchor Construction Contractors LLC, of Othello, Wash., is the contractor for the project, Iris says. Copenhaver Construction Inc., of Creston, Wash., handled the earthwork, she says. 

The county provided the utilities and site engineering, Iris says, and the Spokane office of Coffman Engineers designed the facility, she says.