Coalville gets $9M grant for much needed waste water facility

COALVILLE — People who live in this Summit County town will soon feel a little more at ease, now that they have federal money to build a new waste water facility.

"This plant is 50 years old," Coalville Mayor Duane Schmidt said, "and it's ready to be replaced anyway."

The Bureau of Land Management lease on the land that the current facility sits on is due to expire in October 2014. 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.

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,” Schmidt explained. "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.

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