Sewer plant expansion should reduce lagoon smell

Dan Kulin

Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2003 | 8:54 a.m.

Plans for a $60 million Henderson sewer plant expansion that will eventually allow the city to get rid of smelly lagoons took another step forward Tuesday.

The expansion could begin early next year, but the project will take years and the lagoons probably wouldn't be removed until 2007 or 2008, city officials said.

The City Council on Tuesday authorized city staff to negotiate with the company Montgomery Watson Harza to be the construction managers of the expansion of the city's Water Reclamation Facility on Athens Road.

The expansion will increase the plant capacity by 8 million gallons a day, which will allow the city to take the lagoons off line and create capacity for increased growth, city Environmental Services Manager Mike Neher said.

"It should smell a heck of a lot better," Assistant Director of Utility Services Dennis Porter said.

The plant can now handle up to 27 million gallons per day -- 24 million gallons through an anaerobic process that uses bleach to disinfect the waste water, plus 3 million gallons per day through the anaerobic/aerobic process that uses the nine lagoons there, Neher said.

The open lagoons, which are close to the city's bird preserve, are the source of most of the foul odors that come from the plant.

The city sends about 21 million gallons of waste water to the plant a day now, and averages an annual increase of about 1 million gallons per day, Neher said.

"We'll still be putting some treated effluent into the ponds," Porter said.

Porter said the construction contract should go out to bid around the end of October, and construction could start in early 2004.

The plant expansion will cost about $60 million and take at least three years to complete, he said.

Neher said the expansion and lagoon work could cost around $70 million and take about four years to finish.

"By 2008 the construction should be completed and the lagoons taken off line, and the odors will be better controlled," Neher said.