Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- To forestall neighbors' complaints about the stench, a wastewater-treatment facility has stopped accepting waste from septic tanks.
The action by the Heber Valley Special Service District and Wastewater Treatment Facility, which serves Heber, Midway, Jordanelle and outlying subdivisions, puts residents without sewer connections in a tough position.
They need to try to find septic haulers in a neighboring county to transport the waste out of the Heber Valley. And haulers in Salt Lake and Utah counties sometimes do not want to risk making the winding canyon drive from Wasatch County with a truck full of waste.
Carolyn Anderton of Heber called a half-dozen places trying to get her tank pumped.
"The local ones said no way," she told the Deseret Morning News. "They were having a hard time finding a dump place anywhere locally."
A pipe carrying septic waste broke in her back yard, making Anderton's situation worse. "It was a mess," said Anderton, who lives in the older Timber Lakes development. "I don't know what you're supposed to do."
Eventually, a septic hauler from Salt Lake pumped her tank and fixed the pipe. However, the only reason he was willing to make the 100-mile round trip to Heber was because he had a new truck to handle heavy loads, Anderton said.
Scott Wright, manager of the wastewater-treatment facility, said he decided to refuse the septic-tank waste because three new housing developments have recently been built, with houses that are several hundred feet away from the aerated waste lagoons.
Wright said he wants to keep his new neighbors happy.
"If I have angry neighbors, I have worse problems than people needing to empty their septic tanks," he said. "I have to try to be a good neighbor, even though I was here first."
Waste from sewer connections travels to the facility, where aerobic bacteria break down the sewage.
Waste from septic tanks contains anaerobic bacteria that thrive without oxygen and produce a heavier, lingering smell. Accepting the septic-tank waste at the treatment facility mixes the anaerobic material into the aerobic lagoons where the sewage is broken down.
"It has that rotten egg smell in it," Wright said.
Two lagoons now are frozen over. When the hotter summer months hit, the breakdown process will speed up because water from all the lagoons will flow faster and warmer, making the treatment speed up -- and the air will be less smelly.
So far, few residents have complained about the odor.
"Half the time, we don't even notice that they're there," said Carol Thompson, who has lived in the new Fox Den Estates subdivision for about a year.
Thompson's back yard overlooks the lagoons. "We were concerned when we moved in," she said. "But we notice the cows more than the waste."
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
