Marlene Feist, Utilities Director of Strategic Development, No Phone Number Available
Monday, March 7, 2016 at 4:55 p.m.
Updated March 8, 2016
With 150 smiling kids behind him, Mayor David Condon handed over a ceremonial key to the principal of the Pride Prep charter school, Brenda McDonald.
The “key” is to the grass fields built over the top of a recently completed combined sewer overflow (CSO) tank on Sprague Avenue near Hamilton, across the street from Pride Prep. Since the school is located in an area with a lack of green space, teachers will use the fields for physical education classes and outdoor activities. In exchange, the school will mow the grass and take care of it.
The tank is part of the City's Cleaner River Faster initiative. The City of Spokane is investing more than $300 million in projects to improve water quality in the Spokane River, including projects like this that reduce overflows from combined sewers, along with major improvements at the City's wastewater treatment plant and stormwater management projects.
The tank on Sprague can hold about 360,000 gallons of combined wastewater and stormwater during a storm. Once the storm subsides, the wastewater is sent to the City's water reclamation facility for treatment. It was built by Halme Construction, with construction management by CH2M Hill and design by AECom. The City has completed about half of tank projects it needs to manage overflows from combined sewers.
One of the major goals of our Cleaner River Faster program is to create multiple benefits when the City constructs large infrastructure projects. We want to find above-ground benefits for our neighborhoods, businesses, and citizens when we build below-ground infrastructure to keep pollution out of the Spokane River.
Sharing the space with Pride Prep is one of those community benefits. In other areas, we've enhanced City parks, created a passive a natural area, opened up view corridors, and rebuilt sections of street.
