The city of Green River will apply for a loan through the state’s revolving fund program to pay for design work on a planned wastewater treatment facility.
The loan application, approved by the City Council last night, will total $1.2 million. Another $1.2 million grant application was approved a month ago for the same project. Mark Westenskow, the city’s engineer and utilities manager, said the design work will take approximately one year, but anticipates the treatment facility construction to cost between $20 million and $30 million once the facility design is finished.
The city treats its wastewater and sewage through sewage lagoons. The lagoons are at the end of their life cycles and the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality and Environmental Protection Agency are pushing the city to update the its treatment system through permits.
Westenskow said the city will likely have only one more permitting cycle, which would end in 2021, before regulations on the city’s lagoons begin to tighten.
The city has already conducted an evaluation to determine what type of wastewater treatment plant the city would need, which suggests a mechanical system will be the best fit.
As the city faces increased fiscal pressures from lower sales tax receipts, the cost for a mechanical treatment plant will be difficult regardless of if the final cost nears $20 million or $30 million.
“It’s obvious we don’t have that (money,)” Westenskow said.
While the city plans to conduct an audit of its service fees, the loan will result in higher sewage fees in the future. However, it’s unknown how much those fees will increase at this time. Westenskow said grants can offset some of the interest associated with a loan from the state revolving fund. The more grant money the project can attract means a lower loan amount from the state.
Another avenue for the city could be through the next sixth-penny tax ballot, though officials at the city and county level have expressed an interest in paying off the current bonds associated with the tax before approaching voters with another tax initiative.
The tax has most frequently been applied to capital projects and has been used in street maintenance and improvements in Green River.
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