Palmer wastewater treatment plant nearing capacity

July 29, 2007

By Hannah Guillaume/Frontiersman

MAT-SU - Palmer and its neighbors think residents could finally flood the drain they've been dumping down for years.

Palmer City Manager Tom Healy said population bursts are increasing the flow of discharge into the city's wastewater treatment plant and could cause flooding if not addressed in at least four years.

The city is banned from dumping more than 950,000 gallons a day into the Matanuska River by the Environmental Protection Agency and must reduce ammonia levels in the discharged water by 2011. About 9,000 city and area residents average a discharge of 500,000 to 600,000 gallons a day into the river, Healy said.

John Berberich, an operator at the wastewater treatment plant, said the 2005 National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit renewal shows that the plant violated the levels of ammonia that can be discharged into the river and is fixing the problem with additives like oxygen.

Healy said Palmer also needs to expand its treatment facilities to meet the growing amounts customers are flushing down the drain.

&#8220With the expansion of the area flows will increase,” Healy said. &#8220Sewage treatment is always about reduction.”

There is no immediate concern for flooding the system, Healy said, adding that a four year deadline to increase assumes that multiple subdivisions, each with hundreds of homes, will be built. It is not yet gauged how many more people it would take to cause an overflow.

The wastewater treatment plant serves buildings west and north of the Matanuska River, east of Trunk Road and south of Palmer Fishhook Road, Healy said. Nearly six miles of distribution lines worth $10.3 million were added to include service for Mat-Su Regional Medical Center, according to the EPA. Palmer paid $300,000 from its utility reserve funds to build the extension.

Portable toilets from the Palmer state fairgrounds and Mount McKinley Meat and Sausage Co., a slaughterhouse and meat packing facility, discharge into the wastewater treatment plant that dumps into the Matanuska River.

Ratepayers along that southwest extension won't notice a hike in their bills, because capital costs are paid for by subdividision builders, Healy said. Rates users and subdivision builders pay, not taxes, fund the plant's operations. Decades ago, 50 steel water mains were put in and those are being replaced with funding from the EPA and Department for Environmental Conservation grants.

&#8220We've been very successful in obtaining those funds,” he said. &#8220Palmer has always done a good job of installing good utilities.”

A master plan for the wastewater treatment plant's expansion will be produced this fall, he said. Palmer City Council will examine preliminary planning presented by engineering consulting firm Hattenburg, Dilley and Linnell in August.

Roscoe Barrett, the Palmer director of public works, said the preliminary plan will give the council five scenarios to work with to address problems the plant has and faces.

&#8220It's coming together, but its a lot of information,” he said. &#8220It's really about staying ahead of the population growth. The future is here.”

One option the city council may be presented with in coming weeks is teaming up with the Mat-Su Borough to build additional wastewater treatment facilities, he said.

The Borough hauls its sludge to Anchorage, Barrett said, and thinks it's an interesting idea worth exploring if its numbers are healthy for the environment by EPA's standards. Costs aren't being discussed yet, but there is possible state and federal funding that the city could match, including state low interest loans residents could vote on.

Contact Hannah Guillaume at 352-2284 or hannahguillaume@yahoo.com.