Lacey urban growth spurs LOTT to modernize sewer system 

For 35 years, the Martin Way Pump Station has served the City of Lacey by processing more than 8 million gallons a day through its original generator, pumps, and wet well, components that no longer meet the city’s projected needs. 

Engineering Project Manager Stephen Chapel relayed the planning steps LOTT Clean Water Alliance has taken to replace the existing with a new pump station. The update was detailed during LOTT’s board meeting on May 14. 

Present at the session were LOTT Board President Tye Menser of the Thurston County Board of County Commissioners; Vice President Leatta Dahlhoff of the Tumwater City Council; board members Dani Madrone of the Olympia City Council, Carolyn Cox of the Lacey City Council and LOTT executive officials. 

Chapel said the Martin Way Pump Station currently handles more than 80% of Lacey’s wastewater. Its service area includes Hawks Prairie, the Martin Way corridor, College Street, Ruddell Road and Yelm Highway. 

Wastewater from those areas is pumped to two places. One is the Martin Way Reclaimed Water Plant that treats about a 1 million gallons per day and returns it to the ground, and the rest goes to the Budd Inlet Treatment Plant, where it is processed and partly reused by the City of Tumwater. 

Although the station got an upgrade in 2004, some of the equipment inside is now 35 years old and is starting to wear out. 

Obsolescence, overload 

LOTT’s Martin Way Pump Station is already handling too much flow and will fall further behind as the city grows. 

“It was built in 1991. Lacey was a little bit smaller at that point in time, and Lacey has grown, and we suspect that Lacey will continue to grow,” Chapel said. 

Current daily flows vary between 2.5 and 8.5 million gallons per day, and by 2050 base flows are expected to reach 5.5 million with peak surges during storms reaching up to 16 million gallons. 

Chapel said the station is not equipped to meet future volumes, especially without a backup pump, which he referred to as “redundancy." However, the current infrastructure cannot support the backup system. 

In a nutshell, the existing pump gallery houses four pumps, but only three are in active use. Even with all three running at once, Chapel said, they won’t be able to keep up. 

“Eventually, the three major main pumps we have in that room, even if you turn them all (on) at the same time, won’t be able to pump all the capacity,” he said. 

On top of limited pump capacity, Chapel said the station’s wet well design has caused problems with grit accumulation. Sand, dirt and other small debris settle in the bottom and have to be cleared out by hand. He added it’s a recurring issue not seen at other LOTT sites like Capitol Lake or Kaiser Road. 

“It requires extra operator time to go out there and get it cleaned out properly,” he said. 

Chapel said the same grit causes issues downstream. If it reaches Martin Way Reclaimed Water Plant, it can damage the fine screens that treat the water before it’s returned to the ground, and trying to change or enlarge the wet well isn’t possible either. 

“There’s a whole lot of concrete that was cast in place in 1991 ... and there’s not very much room to make modifications to that wet well to try to make it bigger or shape it differently," he said. 

Other equipment at the site faces similar limits like the emergency generator. It still runs after 35 years, but Chapel said it’s getting harder to maintain because the current parts now are "hard to find." 

Feasible site 

To address the facility's challenges, LOTT reviewed three options. Renovate the current station, expand it or build a new one. 

Renovating would mean shutting the station down for 18 months and installing a temporary system, which Chapel said would be "risky" and complicated. Expansion, meanwhile, is not feasible due to space and layout limitations. 

Instead, LOTT recommended building a new station next door. 

They identified a wooded lot just east of the current site that “sits at the same level as the existing one,” which makes it the most feasible spot for moving wastewater into a new wet well. 

Other possible locations, like the Taco Bell parking lot, the wooded lot to the north, or sites near Martin and Carpenter or over on Pacific Avenue, were ruled out due to “really bad hydraulics” or because the pipes wouldn’t carry the flow properly. 

Chapel said they’ve already started early discussions with land owner St. Martin’s Abbey, which seemed open to the idea and asked LOTT to do its homework before continuing the conversation. 

Construction plan 

With a likely site in mind, LOTT has begun preparing for the next phase of the project.  

Chapel said the team is now working through environmental and permitting requirements like State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA), reviewing wetland impacts, and coordinating with the Department of Ecology and the City of Lacey. 

He also confirmed all agencies involved agree the direction makes sense and LOTT is “ready to take all that planning effort and move it into design.” 

The plan would keep the 1991 screen structure, build a new wet well and pump gallery on the east lot, and add a generator, stormwater pond and other needed components. 

The updated design features a "self-cleaning wet well" that collects grit in a trough, wherein it’s removed by pumps and diverted to Budd Inlet for treatment, keeping it out of the reclaimed water system. 

Inside the new pump gallery, Chapel said there would be space for bigger pumps, larger pipes and “redundancy for both pumping systems," one going to Budd Inlet and the other to the reclaimed water plant. All equipment would be new with better hydraulic performance and more space for maintenance and future upgrades. 

To stay on track for the system to go online by 2029, Chapel said LOTT needs to move into the design phase within the next few months. They are currently working with engineering consultants at Brown and Caldwell to finalize the scope and cost of the work. 

Lacey council member and LOTT Board Member Carolyn Cox asked if the proposed upgrades would be enough to keep pace with Lacey’s projected growth beyond 2050. 

“Lacey’s population is exploding, and I’m just wondering if … once this new facility is built, will we have the capacity to expand on-site by knocking out the old one or expanding into where the old one was?” Cox asked. 

Chapel said no final plan exists for what to do with the current system, but added the new layout is being designed with flexibility in mind. He also confirmed the growth projections include future developments and higher demand from projects currently in the pipeline.  

“We haven’t made plans yet … but it would seem that yes, we can take all the old stuff out, with the exception of the screenings building, and we could go that way in the future, if that’s what we needed,” he said. 

Cox said she was worried about potential feedback from nearby businesses, including the neighboring Taco Bell. Chapel said LOTT had already started required outreach as part of the conditional use process. 

When asked whether the City of Lacey might be expected to contribute financially to the project, LOTT officials clarified, “This is a LOTT pump station.” 

The projected construction budget sits at $31 million. LOTT’s design contract is expected to come before the board for approval in the coming months, and the organization plans to complete design, permitting and land coordination before starting construction. 

LOTT aims to have the new Martin Way Pump Station up and running by 2029. 

Editor's note: This story has been updated and corrected to reflect the status of the  wastewater facility during high-volume surges. It is not at risk of collapse during high-volume surges.