Council moves toward replacing sewer pump station

    The Washington City Council took a step toward replacing the sewer pump station in Sunset Park with a gravity flow sewer main at its Wednesday meeting in the former library. Members of the engineering firm Fox Engineering presented the plan to install a gravity main which would run from Sunset Park to the new wastewater treatment plant, which will be just west of the current wastewater treatment plant. The council voted unanimously to authorize city staff to prepare a resolution for the next meeting so the council could formally approve the plan recommended by Fox Engineering.

    Councilman Merlin Hagie said he was pleased with the plan Fox Engineering designed and was especially glad that the city is moving away from using pump stations.

    ?I am dead set against ever having a pumping station of any kind if humanly possible,? said Hagie. ?I went through that for many years at the University [of Iowa] where we are pumping waste uphill. You?re at the mercy of the pump. If the pump dies, you better get it fixed pretty quick because the next one might die, too, and then you have stuff running places you don?t want it.?

    Hagie also mentioned that pump stations are more expensive to operate than mains that simply use gravity. 

    ?You have to buy a generator because you can?t trust the power lines to always be there,? he said. ?It?s an ongoing expense, day after day, year after year. If we?re looking long-term, the gravity sewer is the best option available.?

    The gravity main will not run directly from Sunset Park to the new wastewater plant, but instead will run west out of Sunset Park and cross Highway 92 west of its intersection with Highway 1. It will then run southwest of the fairgrounds before turning southeast toward the wastewater plant. Hagie said that the circuitous route might actually promote development on the west edge of town.

For the full story, see the May 20 edition of The Washington Evening Journal