Keeping bacteria happy solves sewer troubles

PALMER — It’s taken a while, but Palmer officials think that by the end of the summer the city will have fixed its sewage treatment problems.

Carter Cole, the city’s public works director, said a $2.5 million economic stimulus grant from the federal government has allowed the city to cover its sewage ponds.

The city has the covers in hand and plans to start installing them on the ponds this month. City workers may even get a hand from students at the Alaska Job Corps Center.

The covers will keep the ponds warm in the winter, but not too warm. City officials say keeping the sewage treatment process going is kind of a balancing act. Too cold and the water-treating bacteria die. Too warm and the bacteria grow out of control, eat all the food and starve to death.

“What you’re trying to do is get an environment over this pond that you can control,” Carter said.

But that’s easier said than done. Keeping the bacteria alive and working has been an issue in Palmer for years. The frozen ponds have often driven the city out of compliance with Environmental Protection Agency regulations during the winter.

Indeed, Cole said, fixing the sewage treatment problem was top on his to-do list when he signed up to work for Palmer.

City Manager Bill Allen said that when he brought Cole in the EPA had given the city until December 2011 to fix the problem before it started levying fines. At the time, it seemed almost like an insurmountable problem.

“The price tag was over $100 million,” Allen said. So, putting together a workable, cheaper solution is “a big, big accomplishment.”

Cole said the plan is to blanket the ponds with a soft covering. He believes that will put the city in compliance. Eventually, he said, the city wants to put hard covers on top of those. The city thinks it will be able to score more grant money to do that work.

“The soft covers will still work. We’ll still be in compliance with them,” he said.

But hard covers will keep out rainwater and snow and make it easier to keep the temperatures under control. They also will help with some regulations changes coming down the pike dealing with water runoff. Cole said having hard covers in place will leave the city better prepared to deal with those changes.

For now, though, he’s satisfied with the soft covers. He said they do more than just keep the EPA at bay.

“What it does is extend the life of our facility,” Cole said.

And the state is watching the project closely, Allen said. Cole explained that the system might be a workable solution for villages in the colder reaches of Alaska with the same sort of problems keeping ponds fluid.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.