LOLO — Missoula County Public Works held an open house at Lolo School on Tuesday night, presenting community members with their plan to either maintain the current sewer system or potentially improve it.
“The bioreactor, secondary clarifier, they're aged, but we're also at capacity and we don't have redundancy," said Shane Stack, chief public works officer for Missoula County. "So if there's any type of failure, we're having to shut the system down or try to divert wastewater. That's just not really a good long-term option if we do have a failure. And we're really out of compliance with DEQ Circular Number 2."
Stack said the county needs to make upgrades to the current system to keep it functioning and to come into compliance with DEQ regulations, at a cost of $7.5 million.
But, the county is also proposing an increase in capacity to the current system — tacking on an additional $1.6 million.
“For an additional $1.6 million, we essentially have 800 and 400 new connections, or the ability to have that and accommodate it," Stack said. "The nice thing is, is with the new connections being available, connection fees for water and sewer combined is right now, the goal is to make it $10,000 a connection."
Regardless of the potential for adding more capacity, the monthly sewer and water rate would increase by roughly $30 to pay for the needed improvements.
Missoula County said that if there is capacity added, then the monthly rate would come down as more people from the added capacity are connected — spreading the costs. But for Cathie Hinds and Liz Heany Zader, Lolo residents, the increase in the monthly rate is concerning.
“Senior citizens and people on Social Security have no way of getting an extra $20 for whatever it's going to take," Hinds said. "Where if you're still in the workforce, you may be able to pick up an extra hour or two at work to pay for some stuff."
“No, it just compounds it with insurance rates, insurance hikes, property taxes are always going up. The levy, this FEMA flood insurance, it's like how much more can a person take?” Heany Zader said.
The decision to add capacity will be made by the end of July this year, with residents able to weigh in and protest the action taken by the county.
