Dodson Town Council requests sewer rate to fix town's lagoon

The Dodson Town Council held a special meeting on Thursday evening to discuss a proposed rate increase of $3 per month to the 60 customers of the town’s sewer system – $270.25 per month to school – to help pay for a portion of a $73,000 repairs to the municipal sewer system.

Bob Church of Great West Engineering was at the meeting to shed some light on the problems that the sewer system is currently having. Church was the engineer who was brought in to conduct the work done on the city’s sewer seven years ago.

The original sewer system in Dodson was built in 1958 and consisted of a collection system, lift station and treatment lagoon. In 2004, Great West Engineering conducted an engineering report and discovered that the treatment lagoon no longer met Montana DEQ permit limits and that the lift station was in “poor condition,” according to Church. He said the town of Dodson decided to install a total retention lagoon at the time, designed to make wastewater eventually evaporate. A new lift station was also built. The price tag on the job was estimated at nearly $1.25 million (with $970,000 coming in grants from TSEP, CDBG and DNRC) leaving the town of Dodson to cover $250,000. However, a low bid of $83,000 was submitted and allowed the $250,000 loan to be dropped to $83,000, which in turn left a monthly sewer rate of $20.50 per household unit.

“That is one of the lowest rates in the state,” Church added.

Church said the Town of Dodson contacted him last spring concerning erosion damage and high water levels in the lagoon. He said that in December of 2011, following a season, which saw a lot of snow, the Design Average Flow – and water levels spiked during that time, according to Dodson Town reports.

Church added that an offset joint, to the south of Dodson, that used to carry Dodson Creek underneath Highway 2 (installed after 1958) most likely contributed to large amount of water entering the collection system. He said that the Highway Department made a repair to that system in the Fall of 2011 – the same year as the large water spike.

“We feel that was at least one major source of all that water that was getting into the system,” he said. “That is repaired now.”

Church came to Dodson to inspect the worries brought to his attention by the Town of Dodson and after determining that the water levels in the system were indeed much higher than they should be, contacted Montana DEQ and obtained approval for a one-time pump of the lagoons to discharge the wastewater. The town hired a contractor to pump down the lagoons as Great West Engineering helped the Town of Dodson obtain a $23,000 emergency grant from the Montana Department of Commerce to cover some of the work’s cost.

“They were out there pumping for over a month,” Church said. “About six days a week to pump the water out.”

So now, the proposed project to fix the problems includes repairing the dikes, constructing a new overflow at a lower elevation – to prevent water from ever getting that high again – and installing manhole inserts.

Church and Great West are also recommending that the Town of Dodson adopt an ordinance that would prohibit sump pump connections to the town’s sewer system.

Church said that since he has been in town he has heard rumblings that recent construction work provided by 21 Construction caused problems with the lagoons. He dispelled those rumors.

“It’s not true,” he said. “This water got into the collection system and now you are having to deal with it. We are going to take measures so that hopefully that doesn’t happen again.”

The price tag for the pumping of the lagoon was almost $43,000, the repairs are about $27,000 which lead to the project costing about $105,988 when it is all said and done. Church said that a TSEP grant of $23,000, combined with $9,988 from the town reserves leaves $66,000 needed for the project. A SRF loan of $73,000 – at 2.5-percent interest rate over 20 years – has been secured, but to pay for that loan the Town of Dodson will need to raise their sewer rates by $3 making the new rate $23.50 per month.

At the conclusion of the meeting, the Town Council of Dodson adopted a resolution of intention to increase existing rates and charges for the users of the Municipal Sewer System.

A public hearing on the proposed rate increase will be held on Monday, October 6 at 6:30 p.m. at the Catholic Hall in Dodson. Further information about the proposed rate increase may be obtained by contacting Dodson Town Clerk and Treasurer Jennifer Best at P.O. Box 98 or by phone at 383-4492.