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COALVILLE — It's usually difficult to get people excited about a sewage treatment plant. But residents of Coalville are looking forward to the new facility because they faced the prospect of losing the sewer treatment plant they already have.
The city has been around a long time, and so has its waste water treatment facility. Coalville Mayor Duane Schmidt said, "This plant is 50 years old, and it's ready to be replaced anyway."
The city has tried to get federal money for a new plant but it hasn't been easy. Schmidt thought the city had $9 million last year, enough to build the plant, until the federal budget meltdown melted away the city's grant.
"We really panicked as to what we were going to do because we need to be out of here by October of 2014," Schmidt explained.
That's when the Bureau of Reclamation lease on the land the current facility sits on is due to expire. That meant the city of 1,400 people had three years to come up with $9 million for a new plant. That's roughly $6,400 a person.
"There's just absolutely no way that the city could afford this," Schmidt said.
Another concern was Echo Reservoir, located practically next to the sewage plant. If a catastrophic event such as a flood were to occur, the reservoir would flood to the plant and water from the two would mix.
"You would have some contamination, and we can't have that," Schmidt said. "Echo Reservoir serves as culinary water as well as irrigation water for the valley."
So, Coalville applied for another grant and found out a few weeks ago that it got the $9 million. Soon, the city will have a new, safer sewage facility. "That's huge for the city of Coalville," Schmidt said.
He says construction of the new plant could begin next year.
