FAIRBANKS -- The water utility in North Pole is looking to secure state funding for a $4 million wastewater problem that was discovered nearly a decade ago.
The city is pursuing a construction project that will extend a pipe that carries about 200,000 gallons of treated wastewater per day to a channel of the Tanana River by as much as 4,000 feet. Director of city services Bill Butler says the extension is needed because the channel is drying up, The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported.
"It's an act of nature," Butler said. "It's not an act of negligence."
The city is requesting funding from the Alaska Legislature and from a state wastewater loan program. The City Council will decide Jan. 4 whether to appropriate about $300,000 in mostly state grant money to get started on the engineering and designing portion of the project.
Butler said the wastewater problem, which was discovered by workers testing the treated wastewater in 2006, will be the utility's biggest issue in 2016. The utility serves about 650 customers.
The wastewater is treated in four sewage lagoons before it flows out to the Tanana River. The water is treated, but it is not considered potable.
Butler said the city has been under a notice of violation by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. The discharge permit requires that the wastewater flow into a "mixing zone," not a dry riverbed.
The city ruled out dredging the channel or digging a pond as possible solutions to fixing the problem before setting on lengthening the pipe.
"We weren't 100 percent sure it would work," Butler said.
If financing for the project moves forward, Butler said construction should start in 2017 or 2018.
"It's a tough budget year, but we are hopeful," he said.
But even if the city does secure the funding, the project will still need to be approved by multiple local, state and federal agencies before work can begin in the Tanana River wetlands.
"Building in a wetland is going to have challenges," Butler said. "Fish spawning can be an issue."