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Rehberg secures $500K for Conrad wastewater plant |
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Wednesday, 27 June 2007 |
 FIXER-UPPER – Looking back towards town, these are the sewer lagoons that will soon be upgraded to come into compliance with EPA and Montana Department of Environmental Quality mandated standards. The city will receive a $500,000 in funding to help renovate the wastewater treatment facility. I-O Photo by Barb Endler
The funding comes as part of the State and Tribal Assistance Grant Program (STAG), which will be matched with local and state funds to help Conrad pay for the project.
“Conrad’s current wastewater facility is more that 30 years old, so these funds couldn’t be arriving at a better time,” Rehberg said. A member of the House Appropriation Committee, he went on to add, “This is a project that will have a direct, positive impact on public health in the Conrad area.”
The project, which will replace and update the existing facility, will result in a new aerated lagoon treatment facility with ultraviolet disinfection, located within the current aerated lagoon cell.
Accumulated sludge will be removed, dried and managed and managed in-house.
Conrad Mayor John Shevlin commented to the I-O on Thursday, “We appreciate Congressman Rehberg and his staff who worked hard to procure these funds for the city.”
He went on to add, “This will go a long way in funding mandated updates to our wastewater facility.”
Current figures put the wastewater project at $3.382 million. The STAG grant secured by Rehberg is less than a third of the amount needed. Originally the project started out at $1.75 million.
The city is preparing a position paper for Senators Baucus and Tester explaining what a hardship this will be on the city without more funding.
The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and the DEQ (Department of (Environmental Quality) are making mandated changes with no funding mechanism forcing the council to make a decision because the city is in violation of their discharge permit. The city is susceptible to fines from the DEQ.
Mayor Shevlin said the council is struggling with this, trying to find the best method to do this without hurting the taxpayer.
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