Treatment plant upgrades OK'd; water rates to rise

After months of planning, evaluation and hearings, Havre City Council decided Monday night to move forward with an $8 million overhaul of the city's wastewater treatment system.

This last hearing on the upgrade, which started at 6 p. m., lasted four times as long as the regular council meeting that followed it.

Nate Weisenburger, from Advanced Engineering and Environmental Services in Great Falls, and Pam Lemer, from Bear Paw Development Corp., answered questions about the project from the council members at the hearing.

Council member Rick Dow had a few questions about the parts of the project that had an eye toward satisfying anticipated regulations, especially those around nitrogen compounds in the water.

Dow saw part of the project packet refers to nitrogen compounds as "greenhouse gases, " the impact of which Dow feels is greatly overblown.

"Are we spending millions of dollars on unsettled science? " Dow asked of Weisenburger.

"We're just trying to meet the water quality standards for the state of Montana, " Weisenburger replied.

Dow then asked whether those standards are decided by elected representatives in the legislature or if this is "just bureaucracy spinning out more regulations. "

Weisenburger said that Montana's Department of Environmental Quality sets specific standards for each watershed in the state.

Dow's last question was how much of the project's costs were for "chasing regulations. "

Weisenburger, without figures in front of him, offered a very hesitant guess that the project cost may be split evenly between bringing the wastewater system up to the present and preparing it to handle future concerns.

The council also discussed how the cost of the project would be paid, both by the city government and the people of Havre.

Of the $8 million total cost on the project, Bear Paw hopes to cover between $625,000 and $750,000 with a Treasure State Endowment Program grant, $100,000 through the Renewable Resource Grant Program, and the rest coming from the state's revolving loan fund.

Lemer said that, if the project gets going before the end of the year, the city could be eligible for nearly $500,000 of the loan being forgiven.

The rest would be paid back by the residents of Havre through a series of rate increases over the new few years.

According to Dave Peterson, public works director, a customer who pays a $71 bill now will, in a year, pay about $82. By the end of three years of increases that rate would exceed $86.

The plan was not only designed with anticipated growth over the next 20 years, but will also make future unexpected upgrades possible.