A new waste water reclamation facility is being built just outside Dickinson, N.D., in order to accommodate a rapidly growing population in the southwest corner of the state. According to The Associated Press, there will be construction equipment on the site for the next two years as officials expect to complete the $30 million project by October 2014.
Lieutenant Governor Drew Wrigley said the plant, which is being paid for in part by state energy-impact grants, will be able to handle waste water flow for as many as 35,000 people. This population projection is based upon recent growth rates caused by the North Dakota oil boom, and Wrigley indicated the facility could be expanded to accommodate a population of up to 68,000 if necessary, the news source reports.
Once the project has been completed, the waste water facility will be able to treat reclaimed water to be used for irrigation and oil field fracking among other industrial applications. The reclaimed water cannot be recycled for human consumption, and not all of it will be usable.
"We can discharge to the Heart River with confidence knowing all regulations will be met," Karla Olson, a representative of Apex Engineering Group, one of three engineering firms involved in the project, told The Jamestown Sun. "The goal, though, is not to discharge to the Heart River every day, but to reuse and reclaim that water."
The Sun reports that the current waste water management facility, which was built in 1950, has been showing signs of aging that prompted officials to begin planning the new plant. The new four-building facility will move away from a lagoon system and be automated, with crews on hand during regular business hours only. The new plant will serve Dickinson as well as other areas of Stark County.
"All you had to do was live in Dickinson during the spring, and when the lagoons turned over or we had a failure with some equipment, we would have some tremendous odor issues," Dickinson Mayor Dennis Johnson told the news source. "Maybe it's hard to get excited about waste water, but I am."
Local residents may have no trouble getting used to the sight of cranes, backhoes and other construction equipment at the site for the new plant, three miles east of Highway 22, if it means they will not need to worry about stinky lagoons and water problems in the very near future.
