Clallam County staff on Aug. 18 told commissioners they will seek several Puget Sound Partnership and Washington State Department of Ecology grants to modernize septic-system records, improve on-site management, and fund upgrades to the county’s StreamKeepers water-quality database.
What staff proposed: county environmental-health and public-health staff said they have $180,000 from the Puget Sound Partnership’s local integrating organization to split between on-site management plan implementation and database work. Separately, staff described a potential $218,000 National Estuary Program/NEP grant and a Department of Ecology combined water-quality grant that could fund a broader database conversion and StreamKeepers upgrades (staff cited worst‑case price estimates of roughly $100,000 to fully modernize the StreamKeepers database).
Tyler health module: staff described a Tyler permit-software “health module” that would add a septic/on-site permitting and tracking capability; staff said the one-time cost would be about $90,000 plus an annual maintenance fee (staff quoted roughly $14,400/year) and that peer counties (Jefferson, Whatcom, Skagit) are at various stages of onboarding similar modules.
Why it matters: staff said the county lost longstanding PermitPlan integrations and now uses “duct-taped” workflows. Commissioners and staff emphasized the public‑health and Puget Sound-water-quality benefits of more reliable on-site septic inspection records and easier annual or multi-year tracking of system compliance.
Concerns and approach: several commissioners raised skepticism about vendor capacity and timing; staff said grant funding is available now and that investing in internal capacity and database tools would reduce manual work and improve compliance monitoring. Staff said they favor using grant funds to hire/expand internal staff hours where possible rather than outsourcing where feasible.
Next steps: commissioners approved applying for the grants and asked staff to return with specifics; staff will pursue both the Puget Sound Partnership funds already allocated to the local LIO and the Ecology/NEP grant opportunities and will continue to explore cost-effective database-conversion options, including lower-cost Access-front-end approaches as an alternative to higher-priced C# front ends.