A $40,000 water system improvement approved Monday by the Iola City Council will reduce the fine the city was ordered to pay recently by the Environmental Protection Agency for wastewater violations.
Councilmen approved, 6-1, the installation of a new pump between the city’s water treatment plant and its water towers. Replacing the pump is expected to cost about $40,000, City Administrator Carl Slaugh said.
In exchange, EPA has agreed to reduce Iola’s fine related to wastewater violations in 2008. The violations stemmed from acidic water discharged into the city’s system by Russell Stover Candies.
The city was fined for failing to properly investigate or take appropriate actions related to the wastewater issue for about a year, from 2008 to 2009.
The EPA fine initially was $44,000, a figure whittled down to $20,000 through “difficult and lengthy negotiations,” City Attorney Chuck Apt said.
With the water pump project, EPA has agreed to pare the city’s fine even further, now to $12,000, Apt said.
The problems have since been eradicated. Russell Stover now pre-treats its wastewater before its discharged into the city system. The candy maker also pays the city $5,601 monthly for improvements to Iola’s wastewater system.
Following the violations, Iola spent $3.5 million to upgrade its sewage lagoons. The city also made repairs to 17 manholes that had corroded because of the acidic wastewater.
The water pump will be used solely for distribution from the water plant to the city’s towers as part of a three-pump system. It will replace a pump installed in 1980 that has been too powerful from the start.
An existing 200-horsepower water pump is so powerful that it causes blowouts along the water main, Slaugh explained, so it is used only sparingly.
The new pump will have a 120 horsepower motor and operate at varying speeds to prevent blowouts.
COUNCILMAN Ken Rowe said he opposed the project, calling it “legalized extortion” from EPA.
“We, as a city, did not do anything wrong,” Rowe said.
Councilman Kendall Callahan, however, noted the city had been informed by EPA about the wastewater violations up to a year prior to any action being taken.
“We had instances when we were told we should have been monitoring this,” Callahan said.
