Spring Creek Lift Station nears completion
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RONAN — Most people don’t think about where the water flowing down their drains ends up.
They go about their business, flushing toilets, washing dishes, and taking showers, without giving any thought to the mechanics of the sewer system.
However, since 80 percent of the Ronan’s sewer water flows into one lift station that was malfunctioning, the Ronan City Council understood that it was time to take note and make it their business.
A lift station is necessary for sewer systems without a gravitational flow. The Spring Creek Lift Station pumps or lifts sewage out to the sewer lagoon, where it will be treated.
Since 2008, the city of Ronan has been on a mission to fix the out of date Spring Creek Lift Station, which was over 45 years old and needed repairs at every turn.
“I mean it was still working, but it was failing,” Ronan Street Superintendent Dave Marmon said.
In 2006, city employees began repairing problems with the pumps in the lift station continuously. It was becoming increasingly more difficult to find parts for the out-of-date system, Marmon added.
Finally city employees decided to take the issue of the malfunctioning lift station to city council.
The council began searching for grants and raised the water and sewer rates in the city in order to pay a percentage of the project.
The city was the recipient of two separate grants that help fund the project. The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act administered through the State Revolving Fund supplied the project with $295,800. The Department of Natural Resources and Conservation chipped in with another $100,000 to fund the project.
“When the money presented itself, we wanted to go forward with (the project,)” Project Manager Shari Johnson said.
Construction plans were to begin in September, but due to a snag with the pump manufacturing involving a stipulation of the stimulus money, the construction of the station did not begin until February.
The new lift station will meet Department of Environmental Quality regulations and assuming growth rates stay the same, the station will meet the needs of the portion of the community it serves for the next 20 years.
It includes a brand new building, complete with a new generator and control panel inside. The pumps were specifically ordered for their cutting ability. Due to their large size, the pumps can move water out of the wet well at a greater speed, which increases the water capacity of the wet well.
The city will also install a security fence and rehabilitate the area damaged by construction.
Johnson also has plans to buy a crane, which will enable city employees to work on the pumps without draining the wet well. City employees will be able to pull the pump up to the surface with the crane. This will enable the workers to make repairs necessary to the pump, while eliminating the danger and inconvenience of crawling into a wet well.
The city also installed a new bypass system, which is necessary in case of system failure and for emergency draining of the wet well.
As of Friday, the city was installing an epoxy liner to ensure that the wet well remains impermeable from the outside and inside.
Though an exact date of completion was not known, city workers predict the finish date of the Spring Creek Lift Station to be sometime during the week of March 7.
