The Mat-Su Borough and the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation have reached an agreement regarding permit violations for the Talkeetna sewer lagoon.
The lagoon has had compliance issues for multiple years, most commonly with the level of fecal coliform bacteria present in treated water, which flows into the Talkeetna River. The borough has made multiple efforts to correct the compliance issues, but has been unsuccessful in eliminating the problem thus far.
A significant portion of the agreement has to do with fines the system must pay for being out of compliance. Those fines could have amounted to thousands of dollars for every day the system violated its permit. Under the agreement, the utility will pay about $60,000 in total fines.
The other major component of the agreement is that the utility must return to compliance. Mat-Su Borough Public Works Director Terry Dolan says that will mean a significant capital upgrade. HDL Engineering has been hired to design upgrades for the treatment system. Dolan says the borough has secured a loan of $7.7 million from the state’s clean water fund to pay for the necessary upgrades. That loan will be paid back over time with revenue from the sales tax placed on the Talkeetna Sewer and Water Service Area. Since the tax went into effect at the beginning of this year, it has brought in more than $800,000. The borough also plans to apply to the community development block grant program, which could bring in as much as $850,000.
