HUMBOLDT — Humboldt moved closer to remediating extensive problems in its sewage collection system Monday night. Council members voted unanimously to pursue a funding package for the project, which has an initial engineer’s estimate of $5.9 million.
The upgrades are mandated by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
KDHE and the rural development arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture will be asked to provide loans and grants that would be paid off through sewer utility revenue. No firm estimate has been made of what that 40 years of debt service will cost residents.
Humboldt has about 900 sewer connections, 830 being to residences, the others serving commercial and industrial enterprises.
City Administrator Cole Herder pointed out sewer line improvements wouldn’t be authorized until funding sources that fit within the city’s means were identified.
Sewer department concerns have beleaguered Humboldt for some time. In 2008, 15,000 feet of the city’s 90,000-foot system were upgraded. Next, improvements were made at the sewer plant, including a large generator that was knocked out of the ring by an intense lightning storm July 2. Parts to put it back online should arrive this week.
Long-term work begging attention is 55,000 feet of clay tile sewer line of various sizes throughout town. Inflow and infiltration problems were identified by smoke tests and putting a video camera through lines. BG Consultants then developed a detailed map showing where and what repairs were needed.
The city was given three options. The first, which it grasped, is the $5.9 million project. Others came in at $8.8 million and $9.9 million.
The work: 207 sewer mains will be repaired and 276 will have vertical concrete lines installed; the 55,000 feet of degenerating and leaking tile pipes will be lined with slightly smaller ones made of PVC. Also 531 service tap connections will be replaced.
If preliminaries, including funding, go to schedule, Humboldt should be in position to start construction in 2017, with completion in about a year.
HERDER announced two major problems with production of drinking water, each having been pushed into the background for 10 to 15 years.
The first has to do with the apparatus that takes in raw river water for purification.
He explained:
The intake station has two pipes near the Neosho River’s bottom, with hand-operated valves operated from a river-bank control room. Several years ago one of the valves broke. To complicate matters, the roots of a large tree have become ensnarled around the intake pipes. Divers, costing $5,000 to $10,000 a day, will come to the city’s rescue when the water level drops.
A second hurdle in the water system is that flocculation basin No. 3, the largest of three, has been sitting idle more than decade.
Flocculation basins are where sediment is stirred and removed from raw water. The other two basins are operating well, but, Herder warned, if either went down Humboldt would not be able to process water.
His solution is to hire a vacuum truck from Chanute to draw water and sediment from the 54-foot-diameter basin so damage may be determined, and a plan for repairs laid out.
