Wastewater resolution moves forward

WASILLA — A resolution authorizing the City of Palmer to issue up to $5 million in bonds for water and wastewater management passed unanimously earlier this month, meaning voters will be able to weigh in on the issue in the coming election.

City officials brought Resolution No. 16-018 to the table this July to address years of insufficient maintenance on Palmer’s current wastewater treatment plant, located in the Outer Springer Loop area.

“The sewer system was first installed in the ’50s … and throughout time, we haven’t made a significant investment in the treatment plant,” said Palmer City Manager Nate Wallace.

The city has also struggled to meet the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ammonia regulations in recent years, though that has more to do with federal rule changes than rising concentrations of ammonia in local waters, Wallace said.

While the text of the recent resolution says the bonds will finance “water and wastewater utility and related capital improvements,” Wallace said the majority of the money will go into updating the current treatment facility and master plan. The main changes will be the addition of two moving-bed bioreactors — aerated concrete basins with aluminum covers — and the eventual phasing out of the existing lagoon system, he said.

To pay for the improvements, Wallace said, the city would need to increase monthly household utility bills 12.5 percent in the first year, 9.5 percent the second year, and 8.5 each subsequent year until 2022 — less than initial estimates.

Wallace said the city is typically “pretty good about getting grants and matching funds” for projects like this, and that he was optimistic about the success of the related proposition headed to the ballot this October.

“I think it’ll pass,” he said.

While the City of Palmer’s sewer system does serve residents outside of city limits, it doesn’t cover much of the Mat-Su Borough as a whole, which is having its own wastewater issues. The borough’s Wastewater and Septage Advisory Board has been in talks for months regarding the construction of a new septage and leachate treatment facility that could cost $22 million in loans.

Wallace said the city has looked at its capacity to receive some of that leachate and septage that the borough currently sends to Anchorage, but right now is unable to “ease that burden for the Valley.”

Contact reporter Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.