The Albany City Council is prepared to continue helping National Frozen Foods in order to keep it in town as a valued employer.

The council tonight is expected to release $46,000 to complete an evaluation of a new way of treating and disposing of the plant's wastewater from processing vegetables.

The company, at 745 30th Ave. S.W., needs to have a new method in place by 2011. The plan is to use the wastewater to help create wetlands.

The food processor has spread its vegetable waste on leased land and on acreage it owns along Beta Drive, said General Manager Bill O'Bryan. None of the waste goes into the city's sewer system.

As large tracts of farmland become less available, the plant must develop a different treatment system, he said.

Generally, the system under consideration is to dilute the food waste at the plant with water and then pump it to a newly created wetland, said Chip Ullstad, the city's utility engineer. Reeds, cattails and other organisms at the site would break down the effluent, he said.

"Once the waste is treated it can be irrigated onto other wetlands," Ullstad said. "The effluent would give those wetlands a continued source of water in September and October when the plant processes its corn and squash."

The proposed city grant comes from the city's sewer economic development fund and would pay CH2M Hill to refine the proposal. The evaluation is expected to be completed in October.

The evaluation includes determining the content of the effluent, the makeup of the soil at a proposed wetland site, the reaction of the soil when treated water is applied, the compatibility of wetlands with nearby property and researching permitting requirements.

The city's engineering staff has reviewed the scope of the project and has recommended that the council release the funds, Ullstad said.

"The expenditure is a sound investment to retain an existing industry," he said.

National Frozen Foods Corporation is headquartered in Seattle. The Albany plant has 215 full-time employees, and the payroll grows to about 375 during the summer.

Tonight's council meeting starts at 7:15 at City Hall.