LOTT provides wastewater management services for the urban areas of north Thurston County, Washington. LOTT is a non-profit corporation, formed by four government partners – Lacey, Olympia, Tumwater, and Thurston County.
As part of its commitment to environmental stewardship, LOTT captures and reuses renewable resources from the wastewater treatment process, including 1900 dry tons per year of Class B biosolids.
Producing those biosolids requires effectively dewatering sludge from the wastewater treatment process. LOTT recently invested in a major upgrade of its sludge dewatering system, costing close to 12 million dollars. LOTT needed to replace aging equipment to improve reliability and eliminate excessive repair costs. These upgrades also improved maintenance access, operational control, safety, and energy efficiency. Construction took more than a year. During that time a temporary dewatering system was needed, increasing the budget an additional $994,000.
LOTT is a part of a partnership that sends biosolids to Boulder Park, in rural Central Washington. The Boulder Park Project is one of the largest farmer-owned and operated biosolids recycling projects in the United States, with more than 60 participating farmers and over 90,000 acres approved for application. Half of the land is in production each year, growing primarily wheat. Biosolids are spread every other year on the fallow fields.
The biosolids act as a vital soil amendment, building healthy soils and helping to retain moisture – essential for dryland farming (farming without irrigation). The sustainability of dryland farms depends on building healthy soils and keeping them in place. Biosolids have shown numerous benefits at Boulder Park, improving the quantity and quality of harvests for farmers while providing a reliable market for biosolids.
