A couple really nasty storms could wreck Haines’ sewer plant building.
Part of the ceiling would fall in if not for the steel pole propping it up since the winter of 2013-2014. Inner walls peel away with lots of insulation peeking through. Outdoor siding is losing its grips on the building.
The roof leaks, big time.
The rotating screens for the treated sludge have seen better days. The electrical system is a patchwork of extra wires and barely compatible gizmos. A key outtake pipe is smaller than the main intake pipe, creating a constipated bottleneck of sludge.
“The building itself is just dissolving. It’s going to pieces. … There was a lot of debate on whether the building would have made it through the last winter,” said Scott Bradford, the Haines Borough’s water and sewer plant supervisor.
The borough assembly will soon discuss whether to green-light the planned replacement of the sewer plant’s building in 2017. Bids are already being sought.
The sewage treatment equipment dates back to 1973. The building was constructed over the equipment in 1985. The current sludge-handling and screening equipment was installed in 1991.
The plant sends 132,000 pounds of treated sludge a year to the local landfill.
On an average day, it treats about 250,000 gallons of sewage, with winter’s snow frequently increasing that daily volume to more than 1 million gallons. The plant can handle up to 1.9 million gallons today.
The sought-after improvements would likely be tackled in four phases – each costing in the neighborhood of about $1.5 million, said Brad Ryan, the borough public facilities director. However, he cautioned that the potential $6 million total price tag is a rough guess that can easily change.
The first phase is to replace the building, with Ryan hoping that a contract for the project will be awarded in December. Tearing down and constructing the new building would begin next spring.
A wrinkle is that the sewage treatment plant would have to keep operating through all that work.
Ryan said the first phase should not affect the borough’s sewer rates. In 2015, the assembly set sewer rates for the following three years, with annual 5 percent increases locked in. The combined water/sewer rate for unmetered residential customers will gradually increase from $78.40 today to $91.20 in July 2018.
The budgeted estimate for the first phase is $1.5 million.
The borough has a $1 million state grant and $600,000 in sales tax revenue allocated for capital improvements available for the first phase.
The second phase – tentatively targeted for 2018 – would replace the rotating screening equipment, which removes much of the solids from the sludge.
The borough applied for state grants for phases one and two of this project, and the application for the first phase posted the highest score for such projects in the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation municipal matching grant program.
The third phase would replace the equipment that squeezes the water out of the sludge. And the fourth phase would replace the old and jerry-rigged electrical equipment.