The Seeley Lake Sewer Board was presented with conceptual designs from engineering firm Water & Environmental Technologies, or WET, for an anticipated sewer project and heard an update on earmarked money for the project from the federal government on July 18.
Bill Decker, Seeley Lake Sewer District manager, provided the update about the earmarked money from Representative Ryan Zinke’s office for a sewer project in Seeley Lake.
The grant application is making its way through the approval process within the U.S. House Appropriations Committee’s Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Act. The Act itself was approved by the committee on July 10 and the final vote on project specifics is expected the last week of July.
Zinke’s office earmarked $10 million for Seeley Lake out of the $20 million requested for seven projects in Montana. Decker said the amount set aside for Seeley Lake is the largest of the seven projects.
Steve Anderson, engineer with WET, explained conceptual sizing and designs the firm came up with based on old sewer system designs, soils and topography of the land in Seeley Lake.
The drainfield for the wastewater system would process about 175,000 gallons each day, which could require about four to eight acres of land, Anderson said, and another acre or so for a treatment facility, totalling around 10 to 15 acres for a site design. Anderson said the previous design included 20 acres. There is a potential for the drainfield to encompass a second type of use, like a soccer field above, for the community to benefit from.
The design of the sewer project helps determine how many lift stations are needed, if gravity pumps can be used and how much and what type of funding the project can receive.
There’s not a lot of public land in the Seeley Lake area, so the site design will likely require the purchasing of private land or putting the project on existing public land, which basically just includes the high school, Anderson said. There is state land located above the high school, but this would require several miles of pumping, which adds cost to the overall project. Forest Service lands are located to the north to potentially purchase from the federal agency as well, Anderson said.
“Site selection is a critical step,” Anderson said. “Basically that’s got to be the first thing we decide on.”
In conceptual designs, Anderson said the collection system could include one lift station and a series of gravity systems that could send waste to a treatment system. One potential location for the treatment system is near the Seeley Swan Medical Center, where an RV park is planned. The owners of the RV park have offered land to the sewer board for use in the sewer project.
The Seeley Lake Sewer board will meet next on Aug. 15 at 6 p.m. at The Barn or via Zoom.
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