DEER LODGE, Mont. — Residents in Deer Lodge, Mont. were more than pleased to find out they’d be receiving over $5 million to help fix their aging wastewater treatment plant, according to The Missoulian.
“We hoped to receive $3 million,” Deer Lodge Mayor Mary Ann Fraley said of the financing package for the new plant. “Then I was informed the grant would be more than $5 million. Everybody was kind of in shock.”
Plant designers underestimated the size of the project and the financial burden it could potentially put on ratepayers.
As a result they figured out a complex package of grants, loans and bonding would help keep the project affordable, noted the article.
The town’s current wastewater treatment plant consists of four lagoons built in 1985 and an ultraviolet disinfection system.
But the biggest reason updates are needed at the plant is to meet new standards.
“We need this not because it’s limiting growth in Deer Lodge,” local environmental consultant Darryl Barton said. “The toilets don’t back up or anything. It’s a matter of meeting water quality standards.”
Read the entire article here.
