Wednesday — January 28, 2004

Ketchum and Sun Valley hold special election

Voters asked Tuesday to
fund sewage plant upgrade

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"If we don’t do this now, the cost will go up not only with interest rates but also with the costs themselves of the plant."

— ED SIMON, Ketchum mayor

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By GREG MOORE
Express Staff Writer

Ketchum and Sun Valley voters will be asked in a special election Tuesday, Feb. 3, to allow their cities to proceed with a $7.4 million upgrade of their jointly owned wastewater treatment plant—a project that officials say the cities have no choice but to undertake.

Mike Herrera, supervisor of the wastewater treatment plant that serves Ketchum and Sun Valley, makes an adjustment to the plant’s chlorine disinfection system. The city of Ketchum and the Sun Valley Water and Sewer District—which jointly own the plant—are proposing to replace the system with a new ultraviolet light disinfection system. Express photo by Willy Cook

Ballots can be cast at only one location in each of the two cites. Polls at Ketchum City Hall and at Sun Valley City Hall will open at 8 a.m. and close at 8 p.m.

Registered voters in both cities can submit absentee ballots at their respective city hall until 5 p.m. Monday, Feb. 2.

In presentations to both city councils on Tuesday, Jan. 20, representatives from Boise-based Pharmer Engineering said the existing plant has almost reached capacity, is too old to buy spare parts for and by 2006 will no longer meet state and federal water quality standards. Violations of those standards could result in fines of up to $10,000 per day.

"These are things we have to do, both from a wastewater treatment standpoint and to protect the Big Wood River," said Sun Valley Water and Sewer District General Manager Jack Brown.

The upgrade would include two new buildings and the replacement of much of the facility’s wastewater treatment equipment. If all goes as planned, construction will begin next spring and be completed by 2006.

The main components of the proposed plant upgrades include:

• A $1.5 million disinfection system that uses ultraviolet light to bombard bacteria and other micro-organisms, destroying their ability to reproduce.
  
   
• Filters—costing $2.5 million—that would remove enough suspended solids and phosphorus to meet more stringent limits established by the Big Wood River Watershed Management Plan. The plan was developed by the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality and approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
  
   
• New aeration basins—costing $1.8 million—that will double current aeration capacity. The current aeration system is operating at 70 percent capacity but cannot function adequately if one of two aeration basins is out of service.
  
   
• A $1.3 million electrical and control system that includes a new 700 kilowatt generator.

One benefit of the upgraded plant is that it would no longer use chemicals to treat sewage. The current plant uses 840 pounds of chlorine each month as part of its treatment process, and 500 pounds of sulfur dioxide to dechlorinate the treated water. The gases can pose a hazard during their transportation and handling.

Steve Hansen, Ketchum utilities manager, said the replacement of chemical disinfection treatments with UV light treatments would effectively eliminate a potential threat of chemical traces being discharged into the Big Wood River.

"The benefit to the environment, to the river, would be a huge plus," Hansen said.

Steve Hansen, Ketchum utilities manager, and Mike Herrera, Ketchum wastewater plant supervisor, inspect the site of a proposed new wastewater disinfection system that will use ultraviolet light to destroy bacteria and other single-cell organisms. The improvement is part of a planned $7.4 million upgrade that requires approval of Ketchum and Sun Valley voters. Express photo by Willy Cook

Because the plant is owned jointly by the city of Ketchum and the Sun Valley Water and Sewer District, each agency would be obligated to pay half the $7.44 million cost. The upgrade would be funded by either a government loan or a bond issue.

Ketchum City Administrator Ron LeBlanc said that once the cities have received voter approval to incur debt, they will have the option of choosing one or both funding methods, depending on interest rates.

LeBlanc said that with a current interest rate of only 3 percent, the loan program looks more favorable. The program was created under the federal Clean Air Act, and involves federal money distributed by the state of Idaho.

If by construction time a bond issue appears most advantageous, Ketchum would issue revenue bonds, repaid by increases in monthly sewer fees and in impact fees for new construction.

The Sun Valley district has determined it would issue general obligation bonds. General obligation bonds are a type of municipal bond for which principal and interest are secured by the credit of the bond issuer and supported by the issuer’s taxing power.

Due to the difference in the types of bonds the cities would issue, voter approval will need to come from only a majority of Ketchum voters, but from two-thirds of Sun Valley voters.

Brown said money to repay the debt would initially be collected from Sun Valley residents by an increase in property taxes, probably amounting to $23 per $100,000 valuation.

Ketchum Mayor Ed Simon said sewer bills for single-family homes in Ketchum would probably rise from the current $13 to $15. He pointed out that even with the increase, Ketchum residents will be paying about $10 less than do Hailey residents and $5 less than Bellevue residents.

Sun Valley residents now pay $16.50 in sewer bills.

"If we don’t do this now, the cost will go up not only with interest rates but also with the costs themselves of the plant," Simon said.

The new plant would be designed to meet the cities’ needs for the next 20 years. Greg Misbach, water quality engineer with the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, said state and federal water quality standards for treated effluent should not change appreciably during that time.

(Express staff writer Gregory Foley contributed to this report.)

 

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