Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
The Whitman County waste transfer station tank replacement project is set to begin Aug. 14 with contractor M.A. DeAtley of Clarkston. The project will replace an evaporation pond with two 10,000 gallon tanks.
County road department workers demolished the original pond last week.
The total project is scheduled to be done in November with no disruption in service at the transfer station expected.
All told, two 10,000-gallon steel tanks will take the place of the former 90x90 foot, 180,000-gallon evaporation pond which served to evaporate all water amidst garbage drained off from the floor of the transfer station.
The water, called contact water, is now stored in the pond and evaporated off or taken by tanker truck to the wastewater treatment facility in Colfax.
The project cost is $574,000 and will be paid for by the county’s capital improvements fund.
Because the existing pond’s lower liner is nearly 20 years old, its quality and integrity cannot be guaranteed, which prompts the need for the new work.
Since the existing pond has no cover, much of what is collected is precipitation.
The new tanks will be built at the site of the existing pond once its contact water is all evaporated or pumped out.
The new, mostly underground tanks are to collect water from the garbage. It will be evaporated from a new 14x32 foot, covered pond or be pumped to a tanker truck and taken to the wastewater treatment plant.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
Reader Comments(0)