As part of its operating budget proposal, the Mat-Su Borough Public Works Department is asking for an increase in the budget for the Talkeetna Sewer and Water System. KTNA’s Phillip Manning has more:
As part of his department’s budget presentation to the Mat-Su Borough Assembly earlier this week, Public Works Director Terry Dolan included an increase of about $30,000 to the Talkeetna Sewer and Water System’s operating budget, as well as a capital budget of nearly $400,000.
Dolan says the operational budget increase comes in large part from the need to address maintenance issues within the system. Currently, the borough is in talks with the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation regarding violations of the sewer lagoon’s permit, and Terry Dolan believes a past lack of maintenance is at least partly to blame.
“This is one of the major things that has us in trouble with DEC. Maintenance at the lagoons has been ignored for years. We have five miles of ductile iron pipe in the ground, most of which hasn’t been inspected in thirty years.”
Terry Dolan says the inspection of that pipe is scheduled to begin next week. He expects that the inspection will reveal the need for repairs.
“What I think we’re going to discover is large amounts of groundwater infiltration into the [sewer] system that needs to be repaired. I think there’s a potential that we’re going to be searching for funds to make those repairs here in the near future.”
Terry Dolan says the sewer lagoon’s last round of tests in the fall were within compliance, and that the department is hopeful that the next round of tests will also be within permit limits, though he adds that the issue of compliance typically arises in the summer months. Dolan says Public Works is moving toward a capital improvement of the treatment plant as a whole.
For years, the Talkeetna Sewer and Water System has operated at a deficit. Customer’s monthly water bills are the only current source of income, and even after rate increases, the system does not have a reserve for repairs or capital projects. With a user base of fewer than 200 accounts, coming by that funding can be difficult unless grants from outside sources are available. The U.S. Department of Agriculture gave the borough one such grant, which has helped fund equipment to perform inspections of the system.
In the long term, Assembly Member Randall Kowalke is considering a sales tax for the service area to help fund both operations and maintenance into the future, though no formal proposal has yet been made.
