Construction on rehabilitation of the North Koochiching Area Sanitary District Treatment Plant has begun.
Crews were on site Wednesday tearing down a storage building to make way for a new, more efficient storage building and work has begun on a preliminary treatment building.
The district board gave its approval to the project earlier this month after considering different options and weighing the project costs.
Bob Rapaway, chief treatment plant operator, said the changes will make the plant more efficient, improve the quality of water leaving the plant, and increase the plant’s capacity to handle additional sewage amounts. Four people operate the plant.
Major construction will take place later on the Rainy River side of the plant. The project is expected to be complete by October 2014.
There are 4,700 households served by the sewer district. Customers could see increases of $17 to $19 on their monthly bills beginning in August, said Tim “Chopper” McBride, executive director of the North Koochiching Area Sanitary District.
The rehabilitation is estimated at $14 million, $4 million of which will be off set by grants, explained McBride. Rehabing the plant is cheaper than constructing a new plant, estimated to cost between $30 and $50 million.
McBride said the deteriorating plant — half of which was built in 1950 and the other in 1985 — must be rehabilitated because of its permit. He said without the permit, the plant cannot operate.
McBride said the new permit will require that phosphorus and mercury be removed. “That’s why we need this new plant,” he said.
The rehab will allow the plant to do a better job of treating the sewage before it is released in Rainy River, said Rapaway.
“We will be taking out phosphorus, which is a big concern now, and also mercury will be taken out,” he said.
McBride added that the water discharged from the plant into the river will have less mercury in it than the water upstream from the plant.
“Lake of the Woods and Rainy River are considered impaired waters because of nutrients, which is phosphorus, so we will be doing our part to clean that out even more,” Rapaway said.
Now, the plant does not have a process to remove mercury and phosphorus, he said.
A part of the 1950-built plant will be removed and new clarifiers added, Rapaway said.
“It will increase the capacity of the plant,” he said. “We will go from 2.3 millions gallons per day to 3 million gallons per day, so our town can grow.”
Rapaway said the rehab project is expected to keep the plant from having any needed changes for the next 20 years. After that, he said, changes may be needed to meet new regulations set for treatment plants.
Efforts are still underway to relocate the Borderland Humane Society’s holding facility now located on the treatment plant property.
