Muddy problem under review by City of Poulsbo

POULSBO — A temporary fix has been made but city staff are pursuing more ways to keep the land from sliding at the Olhava development.

POULSBO — A temporary fix has been made but city staff are pursuing more ways to keep the land from sliding at the Olhava development.

Concerned with overly-turbid, or silty, water discharging from the 216-acre site in late October, the City of Poulsbo put a stop work order on the site that ended Nov. 7. City Engineer John Stephenson said the problem was not the function of the retention and detention ponds, but rather the erosion control on the site.

“The ponds have a lot of mud in them from construction and the clearing and grading and things like that,” Stephenson told the city council at its Dec. 10 meeting.

That order lasted two weeks while First Western Investments, the developers of the site, undertook a number of measures to counter the turbidity readings.

“We don’t tell them exactly what to do to fix the problem,” Stephenson explained. “We just say ‘fix this problem’ and in the meantime we shut them down.”

First Western’s response included adding plastic, rock, silt fences and more temporary settlement ponds. It also brought in a filtering system, which is run by a diesel generator mounted on a semi trailer.

“The water is remaining on site and we’re actually trying to clarify it before it’s discharged off site,” explained Councilman Jeff McGinty of the equipment.

The question over Olhava’s ability to handle stormwater began during a recent appeals process but was tested during the Oct. 20 storm that wreaked havoc across the Puget Sound. An estimated 2.56 to 3.2 inches of rain fell in a 24-hour period, somewhere between a 10-year and 100-year storm occurrence for Poulsbo.

At the time, city staff felt the stormwater detention and retention systems and erosion control had held up but that some minor changes may be warranted. Ten days after the storm, when the turbidity of the water had not lowered, they took another look.

“First of all, it was obvious, it didn’t take a test to tell,” Stephenson said of how staff knew the turbidity of Olhava’s discharge was too high. “But the health department did take samples and sent the results to us and to (the Department of Ecology) and that was the basis for the stop work order.”

For now, the generator-driven filter is the chosen solution for the problem. Normally, the filter will be allowed to run during the city-approved working hours of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. At its Wednesday meeting, council also unanimously approved allowing the equipment to be run 24-hours a day on an as-needed basis contingent on there being no valid complaints from neighbors.

Stephenson said “as-needed” refers to another large rain event. He added that the filter is expected to be needed through this winter and then as construction on the site begins again in spring and summer, that its use will taper off.

“By next fall, the whole site should be stabilized with landscaping or pavement or things like that,” he explained.

However, the City of Poulsbo is also awaiting more recommendations from the DOE on how the erosion control problem may be solved. Though she voted to allow the extended emergency hours for the generator, Councilwoman Kathryn Quade voiced her concern about this incident at Wednesday’s meeting and said she’d like to see alternatives be tried.

“Are we doing anything to encourage them to be better stewards up there?” she asked.

Stephenson said construction crews made adequate efforts to control erosion but that the dry summer contributed to some of them, like planting cover, being less effective than they would likely have been in other years.

“But the rules are not what you do on the site but the rules are you can’t discharge muddy water,” Stephenson said. “You don’t know exactly how much it’s going to rain or when or what the water quality is going to be but you have to be ready for anything and adapt the site as that occurs.”By CARRINA STANTON

Staff Writer

POULSBO — A temporary fix has been made but city staff are pursuing more ways to keep the land from sliding at the Olhava development.

Concerned with overly-turbid, or silty, water discharging from the 216-acre site in late October, the City of Poulsbo put a stop work order on the site that ended Nov. 7. City Engineer John Stephenson said the problem was not the function of the retention and detention ponds, but rather the erosion control on the site.

“The ponds have a lot of mud in them from construction and the clearing and grading and things like that,” Stephenson told the city council at its Dec. 10 meeting.

That order lasted two weeks while First Western Investments, the developers of the site, undertook a number of measures to counter the turbidity readings.

“We don’t tell them exactly what to do to fix the problem,” Stephenson explained. “We just say ‘fix this problem’ and in the meantime we shut them down.”

First Western’s response included adding plastic, rock, silt fences and more temporary settlement ponds. It also brought in a filtering system, which is run by a diesel generator mounted on a semi trailer.

“The water is remaining on site and we’re actually trying to clarify it before it’s discharged off site,” explained Councilman Jeff McGinty of the equipment.

The question over Olhava’s ability to handle stormwater began during a recent appeals process but was tested during the Oct. 20 storm that wreaked havoc across the Puget Sound. An estimated 2.56 to 3.2 inches of rain fell in a 24-hour period, somewhere between a 10-year and 100-year storm occurrence for Poulsbo.

At the time, city staff felt the stormwater detention and retention systems and erosion control had held up but that some minor changes may be warranted. Ten days after the storm, when the turbidity of the water had not lowered, they took another look.

“First of all, it was obvious, it didn’t take a test to tell,” Stephenson said of how staff knew the turbidity of Olhava’s discharge was too high. “But the health department did take samples and sent the results to us and to (the Department of Ecology) and that was the basis for the stop work order.”

For now, the generator-driven filter is the chosen solution for the problem. Normally, the filter will be allowed to run during the city-approved working hours of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. At its Wednesday meeting, council also unanimously approved allowing the equipment to be run 24-hours a day on an as-needed basis contingent on there being no valid complaints from neighbors.

Stephenson said “as-needed” refers to another large rain event. He added that the filter is expected to be needed through this winter and then as construction on the site begins again in spring and summer, that its use will taper off.

“By next fall, the whole site should be stabilized with landscaping or pavement or things like that,” he explained.

However, the City of Poulsbo is also awaiting more recommendations from the DOE on how the erosion control problem may be solved. Though she voted to allow the extended emergency hours for the generator, Councilwoman Kathryn Quade voiced her concern about this incident at Wednesday’s meeting and said she’d like to see alternatives be tried.

“Are we doing anything to encourage them to be better stewards up there?” she asked.

Stephenson said construction crews made adequate efforts to control erosion but that the dry summer contributed to some of them, like planting cover, being less effective than they would likely have been in other years.

“But the rules are not what you do on the site but the rules are you can’t discharge muddy water,” Stephenson said. “You don’t know exactly how much it’s going to rain or when or what the water quality is going to be but you have to be ready for anything and adapt the site as that occurs.”

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