City of Bellingham moves to buy time until better technology is available for Post Point wastewater treatment plant.
In Washington, wastewater management has long relied on incinerators, though several have shut down in recent years. Edmonds closed due to capacity issues. Lynnwood shut down for failing to meet air quality and operating standards. Today, only three remain: Anacortes, Vancouver and Bellingham. Across the train tracks at Marine Park in Fairhaven, the Post Point Wastewater Treatment Plant has stood for over 50 years. Now, the plant is under closer watch following recent air-quality settlements with state regulators.
Wastewater from Bellingham and surrounding communities in Whatcom County flows into Post Point to undergo treatment. Treated and disinfected water is ultimately released into Bellingham Bay, while the sludge is thickened, dewatered and incinerated.
Bellingham has looked for many alternatives to incineration — which creates air pollution and toxic ash — for the last decade.
In 2015, plans began to build an anaerobic digester. These plans were ultimately abandoned in 2022 due to costs and emerging concerns for chemicals such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, better known as PFAS or “forever chemicals.” The plan now? Upgrade the incinerators to improve air emissions, meet regulatory compliance and remain reliable while waiting for new wastewater infrastructure to be made.
“We can all agree that incineration is not ideal and not the most environmentally friendly approach, but it is the best option that is available to us today,” Deputy Director of Bellingham Public Works Michael Olinger said. “We’re going to improve the emissions that we are emitting and then it’s going to buy us that time to find the better option as they continue to develop.”
The upgrade will focus on the incinerator emission controls and is estimated to have a capital investment of $40 million.
Settlement agreement
On March 27, 2024, the Northwest Clean Air Agency sent a notice of violation to Bellingham concerning air quality standards at the Post Point WWTP.
On Nov. 18 of this year, a settlement agreement was reached between NWCAA and the city. The agreement is not a decision on the original violation notice from 2024, but does require Post Point to install air pollution controls and operation of carbon monoxide continuous emission monitors.
“The settlement agreement lays out a clear path for continuous improvements to air quality controls, operations and testing at Post Point. The agreement includes a schedule for installing those added pollution controls to make continuous air quality improvements during the next five years. NWCAA will be following along as the work is done,” Communications Program Manager Seth Preston wrote in an email.
Weighing the options
Larry McCarter, founder of the Ferndale Recycling and Disposal Services solid waste transfer station, has been a vocal citizen against the city’s plans to upgrade the incinerator. McCarter instead has been urging the city to look toward landfilling, which doesn’t treat toxic sludge but can contain it, at a lower cost than incineration.
It would cost the city $4 million to construct a landfilling system, a fraction of the cost of the incinerator upgrade, according to a cost comparison by the City of Bellingham Public Works for the Post Point Solids Management project.
For a landfill in Bellingham to be built, an off-site location would be chosen for transporting and disposing of sewage solids. The need for more trucks to transport the waste would mean more funds need to be allocated to transportation, which leads to an increase in costs for landfilling in the longer-term operations.
“The city is guessing and gambling millions of dollars, hoping to meet air regulations,” McCarter said. “Landfilling will not pollute our air and costs half as much as incineration. Incinerating requires 20 years of disposal costs paid upfront on something that may or may not work. Landfills are already built and working, and we pay as we go.”
The current WWTP is not protective of human health and the environment, according to Kirsten McDade, the North Sound Waterkeeper at RE Sources. McDade also dislikes the city’s plan to upgrade the incinerators and has urged the city to look at landfilling as a more temporary solution.
“I’m disappointed that the city is choosing to spend money and resources on upgrading a technology that takes a lot of fossil fuels to run,” McDade said. “No matter how efficient they get it, how many emissions controls they have, they are still fossil fuel guzzlers and pollution emitters, period.”
Landfilling might be an option if the city needed only a two-year gap to find and build new wastewater infrastructure, according to Bellingham Councilmember Michael Lilliquist. Lilliquist was first elected to the city council in 2010. About 16 years ago, he was handed his first city council packet, which included sewage treatment.
Lilliquist argues for the incinerators to be upgraded because more time is needed to allow the infrastructure for wastewater treatment to develop.
“Both sides in this are trying to evaluate which of our last century’s technology do we want to rely upon while we wait for this century’s technology,” Lilliquist said.
In addition to needing more time for emerging technologies to develop, the regulations have to work locally, according to Olinger.
Olinger said the plant has looked into emerging technologies, such as pyrolysis and gasification, which have been successful in places around the world, like Australia and Europe. But, they are swayed away from them because the plans would not meet environmental regulations in the United States.
To Olinger, investing in upgrading the incinerators at Post Point buys the best amount of time for the plant and the city to find better options as they are developed.
Emerging advances
McDade has toured different U.S. sludge processing plants. One was a gasifier in Bethel, Pennsylvania, built by Earthcare.
Gasification is one emerging development in wastewater treatment. Gasifiers are high temperature, closed-loop systems that turn sludge into gas, biochar and slag. The gas created can be used for electricity and heat to run the process.
According to McDade, the plant in Bethel had been operating for three years and processing sewage sludge for one. Building a similar facility in Bellingham would cost about $35 million and take one to two years.
The Post Point WWTP will be moving forward with upgrading the incinerators. Upgrading air emission control equipment will help the city meet tighter emissions requirements. Between now and 2030, upgrades to the incinerators will be finished while experts continue to look into emerging technologies and changing regulations.
According to the Post Point Solids Management Summary, by 2030–2035, a long-term solution will hopefully be found and by 2035–2040, construction of an updated system will begin.
— By Margaret Baumgartner
Also read in Salish Current:
• “PNW Climate Week kicks off with climate solutions,” July 17, 2025
• “Troubled waters: stormwater bacteria counts stir up concerns,” June 18, 2025
• “Commentary: Climate and community resilience on the docket in 2025,” Jan. 22, 2025
• “You can help: Whatcom Water Week panel to focus on stewardship,” Sept. 11, 2024
• “What tighter federal PFAS mandates mean for local contaminated communities,” May 14, 2024