RSID to upgrade North Havre lift station

Rural Special Improvement District 21 is moving ahead with a project located in the 100-year floodplain and wetland in North Havre after a public meeting Tuesday night.

The project involves upgrading the RSID’s existing and outdated submersible type lift station in the line that is connected to the wastewater treatment plant. A packaged submersible lift station will be constructed with an above-ground enclosure for controls and an area for a backup generator enclosed in new security fencing.

“We did another lift station earlier, four or five years ago and when we moved into this one, to do the upgrade as far as the underground under the river pipeline, it went to the wastewater plant, a lot of that plumbing just fell apart,” Hill County Commissioner Mark Peterson said.

Havre Daily News previously reported that the commission had discussed the need to improve the lift station in the district, which is more than 50 years old — most of the machinery and equipments’ life expectancy is half of that. Additionally, Lift Station 21 is not in danger of causing environmental or health risks at the moment, but the commission wanted to get ahead of what would eventually be a problem.

The project will also line the existing wet well and two upstream manholes with a cured in place liner to seal out groundwater. A project description handed out at the meeting says construction will take place at the existing lift station, with a slightly larger footprint. Peterson said remote pumps will handle sewage during work on the manholes.

“What we want to do is change the system of the pumps instead of a dry pump and a dry well ... it’ll be a wet well and a new power supply there. In other words, if the power goes off there the generator kicks right on. So we don’t have backup of sewage if the power is off for a day or two,” Peterson said.

The description says the new station will provide healthier living conditions for the approximately 48 residential sewer hook-ups in North Havre. The project is expected to be done at no or minimal cost to the public.

“If we can get all the funding, and we are working toward it, might not cost the community hardly anything for an increase and that’s what we like to do. But we need the people to turn out and say it’s important because that’s how we get things done,” Peterson said prior to the meeting.

“If we have the public saying, this is important to us, and we need to have this done, then it makes it a lot easier process to get those grant dollars and special funds,” he added.

Susan Brurud of Bear Paw Development Corp. said the project should not incur any additional funds, depending on costs. The commissioners, Brurud and representatives from Great West Engineering said the project is to be funded by the Community Development Block Grant program and a Treasure State Endowment Program grant, pending legislative approval. Both grants are in the amount of $260,500 for a total of $521,000.

Brurud said an exact timeline for the project remains unknown until all funding is secured.

Commissioner Diane McLean said a response concerning the TSEP grant is expected in the coming weeks.

Jonathan Weaver of Great West Engineering said he is expecting the project to begin in May or June of 2022. 

“You can start incurring costs on the TSEP at the time the House Bill is signed, but once we get to that point then we’d have to start design services on it and then get things ready to go and it’s not ideal to be doing that in the middle of winter. So, it’s get things ready to go, bid in the winter for 2022,” Great West Engineering’s Jeremiah Theys explained.

“Once we have basically 90 percent designed, we have to submit that to (Montana Department of Environmental Quality) for approval and they have up to 60 days for review. So when you start factoring those things in, to try and (start) this fall … I want to be realistic,” Theys added.