HERONS AND TREATMENT FACILITY SHARE WATERFRONT

The expansion of the Post Point Waste Water Treatment Facility is planned to encroach on the nesting area of Bellingham’s only heron colony. Concerns for the birds’ ecosystem may pose a concern to the Fairhaven community and their waterfront.

The colony is the only known heron-nesting site in the city, according to the Bellingham Department of Public Works, and is located in a unique ecosystem near Fairhaven.

The treatment facility, located in Fairhaven next to Marine Park is expanding up-grading because the system has exceeded the carrying capacity for the amount of wastewater the facility can process, and upgrading needs to be done in order to meet National Pollutant Discharge Elimination Systems requirements.

The equipment used by the plant is nearing the end of its service life as well, according to the City of Bellingham plan project for the site.

The cost of this construction is estimated to cost between $73.3 and $128 million. The final design for expansion and upgrading of the plant is expected to be complete by 2011, and construction is estimated to begin by 2014 according to the facilities planning schedule.

There needs to be a balance

Ben Bayma, a citizen of Bellingham, said the blue heron nesting grounds are important, but acknowledges the need to expand the wastewater treatment facility.

“There’s got to be a balance,” Bayma said. “But the heron colony is very important… it should be critical in the management decision.”

Karl Lowry, an operations department employee at the Post Point Water Treatment Facility, said he had knowledge of sensitive conflict.

“The blue heron situation is one [city planners] are aware of,” Lowry said. “They are absolutely taking [the habitat] into consideration.”

Heron population experienced major setback

For an unknown reason the colony of herons abandoned their nests at Post Point in 2008, leaving their young at an age when they could not survive on their own. There was a 100 percent mortality rate for infant blue herons that year, according to Renee LaCroix, City of Bellingham Environmental Coordinator.

The wastewater treatment facility development planners are working closely with LaCroix, and have developed a “triple bottom line” decision process in order to optimize the social, economic, and environmental impacts of this development.

Some residents would like to see more done for the herons

Spencer Gueno, Bellingham resident, would like to see more resources being focused on the environmental component of the triple bottom line optimization.

“[Great blue herons] are like a badge of pride for Fairhaven,” Gueno said. “The animals were here first, that’s always my outlook.”

Anthony Blake, a patron of Marine Park also emphasized the need to think about the herons over the wastewater plant.

“You walk through here in the summer and see tons of nests,” Blake said. “That’s a lot to take away.”

Ratepayers will likely see increased sewage bills as Bellingham City Council approved a 46 percent rate hike increase over a 6-year period in 2007.

The City of Bellingham Waste Water Treatment Facility is a past recipient of Washington State Department of Ecology’s Outstanding Wastewater Treatment Plant Award.