HEADLINES & HISTORY SINCE 1879 Goldendale, Washington
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7, 2024
Vol. 145 No. 32
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Primary election Returns came in too late last night for this morning’s newspaper, but visit www.GoldendaleSentinel.com to see results.
‘Chinese’ hundreddollar bills LOU MARZELES EDITOR
CONTRIBUTED: PEGGY WOODARD
FINANCIAL IMPACT OF FIRE: The Big Horn fire near Bickleton, seen here nearing wind towers, left major economic detriment to the finances of Klickitat County.
Big Horn fire costs county quarter of a million dollars RODGER NICHOLS FOR THE SENTINEL
Fire was much on the minds of Klickitat County Commissioners at their July 30 meeting, which began with a declaration of emergency. Commissioner Dan Christopher made the motion: “I move we approve the resolution in the matter of declaring an emergency for the purpose of responding to threats to public safety and property, due to the Big Horn fire and radio site damages.” It passed unanimously. Commissioners were also hoping for state or federal disaster declarations that would help obtain Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds. The reality is that the financial fallout from the 50,000-acre Big Horn fire in eastern Klickitat County will be felt for a long time.
“We lost over 2,000 feet of guardrail and a bunch of signs,” County Public Works Director Jeff Hunter said, “and we did receive some damage on the road. Preliminarily, we’re looking at probably $250,000 worth of damage.” But that’s not all. Hunter reported that a new fire started just to the east of the Big Horn fire in Benton County. There was concern it might join up with the Big Horn fire. Over the previous weekend, the Cloudville fire on the Dallesport peninsula had evacuation orders in place through Sunday, And there was a county loss from a fire that was not even in Washington State. The Microwave Tower fire, on the Oregon side of the Columbia, actually knocked out the nearby Indian Hill public safety radio site. Emergency Management Director Jeff King told the commis-
A shopper at Holcomb’s Market Saturday brought in what looked like a hundred-dollar bill—but not quite. “I found it on Collins, just up the road,” the man told a cashier at the store who he asked to check it out. She thought it looked fishy, so she called the police. An officer arrived soon after, looked it over, and proclaimed it phony. The cashier tore it up and threw
sioners that he wasn’t surprised at the failure, as the generator was not public safety grade to begin with and was more than 20 years old, long past its expected useful life. The failure came on the second day it had been providing backup power. “It could have been a combination of the heat from the fire that came close,” he said. “Smoke clogged the air filters, caused it to overheat, and ruined the engine.” He explained the maintenance provider said the generator was too damaged for repair, and the company had gone out of their way to get the site back in operation. “They even were able to replace the transfer switch because the one that was there would not match up with the trailer generator we got on loan from the Hood River County Sheriff’s Office.
See County page A8
it in a trash can before permission was asked, and granted, to take pictures of it. There are two telltale indicators that the bill is fake, despite it being on fairly high-quality paper. One is the large yellowish area on the right on the front of the bill. The other—blatantly obvious— is the presence of Chinese characters on a yellow splotch on the left side of the back of the bill. The U.S. Treasury has no printing facilities in China.
CONTRIBUTED
WELL DONE: Left to right: Ocean Barrett, Sharon Blodgett, Mike Krause, Joseph Randall, Noah Halm, Greg Watson, and Brandon Walter.
KPUD Dallesport plant operators win again RODGER NICHOLS FOR THE SENTINEL
BOMB SCARE: Police vehicles swarmed the Sinclair station in Goldendale last week where a bomb was suspected to have been placed. A bomb squad from Yakima responded.
City hears reports on fire response, bomb scare, Pride parade RODGER NICHOLS FOR THE SENTINEL
The opening of Monday’s Goldendale City Council meeting was presided over by twin mayors for the day, Gracelynn and Gunnar Littlewolf. The brother and sister had earned the prize by working as a tag team to win the Community Days scavenger hunt. The pair enjoyed sever-
al events throughout the day, including a ride on a city fire truck. Following a gentle tap of the mayor’s gavel to open the meeting, the two retired for the evening, thanked by all the councilors. The meeting discussed several subjects, including the city’s sixyear city street plan, new flood plain maps, a fire load reduction project on Observatory Hill, add-
ing tie-down charges at the city airport, and the purchase of a newer used vehicle to carry firefighters’ self-contained breathing gear. The latter was the only measure to pass last night. The others were discussions to help the staff draft changes in ordinances for later public hearings. Under staff reports, Fire Chief Noah Halm said Goldendale sent
See City page A8
Wastewater treatment plant operators play a critical role in keeping Washington’s water clean. The facilities they operate have to be functional 24/7/365. And the plants have to deal with everything homes and businesses dump in or flush down the drain. This includes items sewage systems were not made to deal with, like “flushable” wipes, face masks, oils, and cooking grease. It’s not an easy job. Operators have to be certified and meet continuing education requirements. The state’s Information Manual for Treatment Plant Operators, known as “The Orange Book,” contains such helpful examples as: Calculate the suspended solids mass loading: Permit limit: 75 lbs/day Q = .67 MGD, C = 10.5 mg/L 8.34 lbs/MG = Unit conversion for weight of one gallon of water in pounds. mg/L Q x C x Unit Conversion = Mass Loading 0.67 x 10.5 x 8.34 = 58.6719 lbs/day Plants operate under the watchful eye of Washington’s Department of Ecology (DOE), which has the responsibility to regulate
wastewater treatment plants in the state. Every year, every one of the 300 plants is evaluated for compliance with its effluent limits, monitoring and reporting requirements, spill prevention planning, pretreatment and other regulatory activities to stay in full compliance with their discharge permits. Plants that comply 100% with their wastewater discharge permits receive awards in a program that started in 1995. Klickitat PUD owns treatment plants in Glenwood, Klickitat, Lyle, and Wishram and operates the plant in Dallesport under contract with the county. Over the years between them, they’ve racked up 49 DOE Outstanding Performance awards. This year will be no exception. The PUD has received word that the Dallesport plant will win its sixth such award for 2023 later this year. A July 17 letter from Vincent McGowan, Ecology’s water quality program manager, told the utility, “Your plant is one of the top performers for regularly meeting numeric effluent limits and permit criteria, for conducting monitoring, and for reporting data as required. lt takes diligent operators and a strong management team, working effectively
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