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Bayfield says sewage fines hinder repairs
Town manager wants state to credit progress
Herald Staff Writer
But Town Manager Justin Clifton would like a little more understanding on the part of the state. He said Tuesday in a telephone interview that the town is paying the piper for the sins of others. He said that in January, the town acquired the two waste-disposal systems from the independent Bayfield Sanitation District, which was disbanded.
"We stepped in to fix the problems," Clifton said. "We didn't have anything to do with the old system, but fines are hindering our ability to fix things."
Clifton was referring to a notice from state health authorities in late October that Bayfield was out of compliance with sewage-treatment regulations. Authorities levied a fine of $85,000 for exceeding the flow capacity of the plant caused in part by infiltration, the excessive amount of organic matter treated, and the presence of fecal coliform and T. coliform bacteria.
The state allows the money from the fee to stay in Bayfield, but it must be spent on environmental-related projects.
Bayfield will use the money to create a solid-waste recycling center.
Earlier sewage-treatment woes brought a building moratorium from the state in April 2006 and a self-imposed moratorium from February to May 2007. But the building bans have been lifted as the town made progress toward improving its handling of waste.
Bayfield's treatment plant discharges into the Pine River south of town. The Gem Village system empties into Cry Creek.
When the new $7.6 million Bayfield treatment plant comes on line in late fall 2009 discharges from Gem Village are scheduled to be piped there, Clifton said. The current plant has a capacity of 500,000 gallons a day, but it treats about half that amount. The Gem Village plant handles 20,000 gallons of waste a day.
The new plant will have a capacity of 600,000 gallons of waste a day, with the ability to expand to handle double that amount. But its big advantage will be its biological-oxygen capacity - the ability to break down organic matter - food and human waste - Clifton said. The current plant is designed to treat an average of 800 pounds a day of organic matter but has reached as much as 1,200 pounds.
The Bayfield community has invested more than $200,000 to improve waste disposal in town, Clifton said. All schools have installed tanks to settle out solid waste, restaurants have added grease traps and the Riverside RV Park has installed a waste pretreatment system.
The Gem Village sewage-treatment plant serves fewer than 200 customers. Infiltration of water into the system and the presence of fecal coliform that neutralized attempts to chlorinate it were major problems, Clifton said.
"We analyzed the system but were unable to find a solution," he said.
Solutions of sewage-treatment problems in Gem Village necessarily must wait until Bayfield's new plant is operative, Clifton said.
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