Borough plans to upgrade Talkeetna sewer lagoon

Through the month of August, the Talkeetna Sewer and Water District’s new sales tax has brought in over $700,000, according to Mat-Su Borough documents.

That raises the question of what will be done with the funds. Borough Public Works Director Terry Dolan says the poor performance of Talkeetna’s sewer lagoon made it clear earlier this year that substantial upgrades would be needed. The upgrade plans come from a preliminary engineering report done last year by HDL Engineering. Currently, the borough plans remove the constructed wetlands that were damaged in both the 2006 and 2012 floods. The plan will also add steps to the treatment process that involve both aerobic and anaerobic processes. In addition, water will be treated with chlorine, then have the chlorine removed, before it flows into the Talkeetna River.

The borough plans to pay for the upgrades through a loan from the Alaska Clean Water Fund. Terry Dolan says design work is underway, and tax revenue could be used to pay for pre-construction work until the loan funds become available. Dolan hopes to be ready to begin work after the winter.

In the meantime, the Mat-Su Borough Assembly will hold an executive session at its October 16^th meeting to discuss the sewer and water system. The borough has been in discussions with the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation for the last few years regarding multiple violations of the sewer lagoon’s permit. Those violations continued into this summer, potentially building up fines for each day the system is out of compliance. The content of those discussions is subject to a confidentiality agreement until a final determination is made.

According to its permit, the Talkeetna sewer lagoon must stop discharging for the year at the end of this month.