SUNNYSIDE, Wash. -- Sunnyside's wastewater treatment plant will be the final resting place for some of the chemicals at a natural gas well high in the Horse Heaven Hills.

The Sunnyside City Council on Monday voted
5-0 to allow Delta Petroleum to dispose of 400,000 gallons of potassium chloride at the waste water plant.

The Denver-based company has spent more 16 months drilling a natural gas well about 12 miles southeast of Bickleton, but the company announced last month that its engineers did not find commercially viable amounts of gas and is still debating its next move.

However, Delta Petroleum representatives have asked Sunnyside officials if they could throw away the potassium chloride -- basically "salt," as City Manager Jim Bridges described it -- in Sunnyside for a nickel per gallon. The deal gives the city's sewer fund an unexpected $20,000 boost.

Bridges told the council the plant processes 1.5 million gallons of water per day. Delta's request is a "minute amount," he said.

The chemical won't hurt the plant or violate its permit with the state Department of Ecology,
he said.