City of Mullan seeks $3.5M sewer bond

MULLAN — The city of Mullan is looking to pass a bond to help cover costs associated with completing their wastewater collection system project.

In August, Mullan’s City Council held a special meeting to discuss the options for financing the improvements and repairs.

The council voted to proceed with holding a bond election on Nov. 6.

The proposed funding includes the bond and several grants that will be applied for by the city. The councilmembers want the public to know that all efforts to reduce project costs and keep sewer rates affordable are being taken.

According to city officials, the current system is more than 100 years old and is breaking apart, causing high amounts of ground water to infiltrate into the system which flows to the treatment plant.

The groundwater carries soil contaminated with large quantities of toxic heavy metals. These heavy metals cannot be fully removed during the treatment process.

After the sewage has been treated, the toxic heavy metals then flow into the South Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River at unsafe levels.

The level of toxicity is so severe that the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality issued a notice to the Sewer District on Aug. 3 informing them of noncompliance with their pollutant discharge permit.

That warning also came with advice from the South Fork Coeur d’Alene Sewer District’s Joe Close, who advised the city on the importance of the project.

“If this project is not done the infiltration will continue to happen, especially when we have rain or snow events,” Close said. “In a nutshell, Mullan residents will be paying more in the end if the project does not move forward.”

Despite upgrades made to the system over the past two decades, a facility study done by Alta Science and Engineering in January determined that there are major defects such as cracks, root intrusions, blocked pipes, broken pipe segments and misaligned joints.

The city’s staff states that they are barely able to keep up with the maintenance of this system, and the current sewer fund is not large enough to take on a repair project of this size.

They say if action is not taken soon, there will be increased operating and maintenance costs, higher costs of repairs, increased levels of heavy metals contaminating sewer flows and required upgrades at the treatment facility.

All these problems will cause added costs that will have to be paid for by the city’s rate payers.

Mullan mayor Don Kotschevar is very aware of his town’s plight and would hope that his residents would take the time to make whatever decision they feel is in the best interest of the city.

“I hope our citizens would take the time, read the material and attend our informational meeting before deciding how they are going to vote,” Kotschevar said. “I want people to get out and vote. And for that vote to be a responsible, educated vote. I look forward to seeing what people think.”

Kotschevar and the Mullan City Council have made important strides in getting their system up to code by using IDEQ and EPA road remediation funds and have completed a rough 50-60 percent of the work, but to finish it up, they would be looking to pass their $3.5 million bond.

If the proposed bond passes, there will be necessary increases to the sewer collection rates from the current sewer collection rate of $21 per quarter.

The rates for customers would increase over a four-year period, with a first-year increase to $28.25, second-year increase to $35.50, a third-year increase to $42.75 and a fourth-year increase to $50, all per quarter.

“Our rates are going to increase with this,” Kotschevar said. “But we’re looking to get grants to help cover $2-2.5 million of the bond, but if we don’t increase our rates, they won’t even consider us for the grants that we are going to apply for.”

An informational meeting concerning this is schedule for 6 p.m. Monday, Oct. 29 at the Morning Club.