By combining resources, three Freeborn County communities are tackling wastewater treatment issues that may be too expensive to tackle alone.

Wednesday, February 28, 2001

By combining resources, three Freeborn County communities are tackling wastewater treatment issues that may be too expensive to tackle alone.

The towns of Conger, Manchester and Myrtle need to upgrade their treatment of wastewater and are hoping a challenge grant will begin the process.

The first step is a feasibility study conducted by a qualified engineering firm at a cost of more than $20,000.

&uot;We’re hoping that the three towns combined will get more attention and hopefully land these funds,&uot; said Manchester town clerk Dave Pederson. &uot;It looks like a long expensive process, so we need to go after the grant money and low-interest loans.&uot;

The challenge grant, issued by the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources, would fund about half of the feasibility study. According to Freeborn County Water Plan Coordinator Dick Hoffman, the communities and the county requested $10,000.

The rest of the money comes from the communities and the county. Hoffman said each community agreed to contribute $1,500 along with a $6,000 commitment from the county.

&uot;We’ve known that we needed to address waste water treatment in these towns since 1989 when we established our water plan,&uot; Hoffman said. &uot;They are the last incorporated communities left in the county that need to look at their waste water.&uot;

Currently, the residents of Conger, Manchester and Myrtle use septic tanks for their wastewater, said Hoffman. For example, in Myrtle, the septic systems are connected to a common collection point where the wastewater travels down a tile line into a ditch, where it can seep into groundwater or end up in rivers and lakes.

Though simple discharge systems have worked for many years, environmental agencies have turned some attention to small communities, asking them to treat their wastewater to reduce ground water pollution, said Curt Brekke of the Midwest Assistance Program.

&uot;Most of the attention of regulators has been focused on bigger communities over the years. Before that, it was the large cities. Now, the focus is on small towns. Even though Minnesota is a water-rich state, we still have an awful lot of polluted water out there,&uot; Brekke said.

Brekke’s job is to connect communities with grants and low interest loans to finance the upgrades.

&uot;It’s an expensive process. If you’re talking about towns of 200 people or less, it can mean a significant expense for the residents,&uot; Brekke said. &uot;Our goal is to find an economical way to get the systems in place. Then the towns can worry about maintaining the systems.&uot;

Hoffman said a grant could come through as early as May. At that point, the county could begin the process of hiring a firm to complete the study.

Hoffman said the town mayors and council members have been cooperative and seem interested in upgrading their systems, but need some help coordinating the process. Hoffman has taken on the task.

The feasibility study would give the towns some wastewater treatment options, Hoffman said. The study will focus on finding affordable ways to improve the treatment of waste water such as re-circulating sand filters, a lagoon system, a community drain field or a small mechanical plant.

&uot;We’re looking for some very specific recommendations from the study,&uot; Hoffman said. &uot;Then we can sit down with each town’s council and decide what direction to take.&uot;

After the study, the three towns can continue to work together through the process if they chose. The studies, and eventually the construction, are cheaper with one firm to do the work for all three towns, Hoffman said. The towns could also share the cost of hiring a certified maintenance person to look after each system.

&uot;It’s always an advantage to work on these problems in multiple jurisdictions. It makes it a little more attractive to the agencies who are awarding the grants and loans,&uot; Hoffman said.