PORT HADLOCK — The Port of Port Townsend wants to use land next to the airport as the site of a new sewage treatment plant for the Tri-Area urban growth area.
So far, the idea is too new for Jefferson County officials to say how seriously they consider the offer.
The unanimous decision Wednesday by the three Port commissioners comes a week after a county meeting in which numerous Tri-Area residents told county officials to not build a plant near their neighborhoods.
The plant would treat waste water from businesses in Port Hadlock. Residential areas are not slated to be hooked into the sewage system at this time.
The Port is offering to help pay for the treatment plan, too, if it’s allowed to tap into it.
But there’s a catch.
Port officials want to open talks to include Jefferson County International Airport in the urban growth area.
As it stands now, the planning area’s northern boundary ends near Rhody Drive and Irondale Road, about one-half mile from the airport.
Urban growth areas are a state designation placed on unincorporated areas that are selected for town-like growth.
State law requires the county to provide many of the same services to those areas as a city would provide its citizens.
Land use zoning inside the area must be balanced, with residential, commercial and industrial uses.