City passes on septic waste request

Since the county commission echoed the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ) new rules for small wastewater systems in 2018, domestic septage can only be land applied on the property at which it was generated.

Over the last week, the question has been raised of where sludge is supposed to go in cases where it cannot be dumped on the same property. The rules also state, for example, that septic dumping must occur at least a thousand feet from adjacent properties and 300 feet from a private road, water body or stream.

On being approached by local service provider Jim Geis, who is in the business of pumping septic tanks, for permission to use the city’s lagoon for dumping sludge, the City of Sundance does not feel it can help.

Delicate Balance

According to Public Works Director Mac Erickson, speaking at last week’s council meeting, septic tank pumpers cannot then land apply that sludge on their own property.

This is according to the county’s Small Wastewater Regulations, which were approved in 2018 and follow the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality’s rules almost to the letter, according to Tim Lyons, Director of the Planning department.

One alternative destination would be the city’s sewer lagoon. However, Erickson explained that it isn’t such a clear solution as it might seem.

“One of our biggest battles at the lagoon is sludge build-up,” he said.

“If we start taking on a thousand gallons at a time of sludge, it’s going to be quite the burden on our lagoon [with] the possibility of some contaminants coming in there that we don’t want and damaging or killing the bugs in the lagoon.”

His recommendation was that the city not agree to allow septic tanks to be dumped into the lagoon.

“I think we are probably obligated for the septic systems that are in city limits, since we don’t have sewer available to them…but I don’t think it’s a good idea to let in all this waste to our lagoon,” he said.

This rule change was not well thought out, said Mayor Paul Brooks. It’s not a service that can simply be regulated out of existence – people will still need to have their septic systems pumped.

“We certainly don’t want to be the bad guys, but I think it’s in the city’s best interests to protect what we have,” agreed Erickson.

The issue for the city is not overload of the system, Brooks explained in response to a question from the audience. Sundance’s lagoons have plenty of capacity and are sized for growth, so the city is not in danger of outgrowing them.

Instead, it’s about the chemistry.

“We spend a lot of money keeping them healthy,” he said.

Erickson explained why the septic tanks could impact the system.

“Bringing in raw sewage that’s been in a septic tank for who knows how many years and hasn’t broken down, it probably isn’t going to break down in our lagoons. It’s just going to build up and build up and now we’re in charge of dredging it and cleaning it out to keep our space,” said Erickson.

Brooks went into more detail on the overall function of the lagoon.

“Our chemistry is difficult to stabilize because, when it’s raining, we have a fairly high concentration of water to bacteria, but when it quits raining, the chemistry changes very rapidly – it’s fairly delicate,” he said.

“That second pond out there is a healthy bloom of bacteria and we drain a little into it all the time, and we take a little bit out and we reinject it into our pond at all time to keep that chemistry balanced.”

No longer keeping the chemistry balanced is not a choice any citizen would want the city to make, he continued.

“I don’t know if you lived here when they didn’t do that, but there was a couple or three weeks of the year when you couldn’t hardly bear to live here,” Brooks joked, to general laughter from the room.

“Now we have a really nice chemistry going through quite a few dollars from the residents of the town of Sundance and the fact of the matter is that it’s a delicate system.”

The crux of the matter is that the new regulations are not Sundance’s problem, Brooks said. While in a perfect world, the council would love to be able to help with the solution, it would not be in the best interests of citizens to do so.

Asking for Help

Earlier in the day, local service provider Jim Geis had asked the county commissioners during their regular meeting for clarification on what should be done with the sludge, saying that the general consensus from both Sundance and Hulett seemed to be that their lagoons are not an option.

Though Commissioner Kelly Dennis expressed regret, no immediate solution is available because the county does not own infrastructure that would be suitable for sludge dumping.

However, on the basis that having no place to take sludge, “Affects everyone in this whole county pretty drastically,” according to Commissioner Fred Devish, the commission agreed to arrange a special meeting this Friday with representatives from the DEQ.