City's sewer woes grow

SANTAQUIN — A septic tank company caught twice illegally dumping its load of effluent into the Santaquin sewer system only adds to the city's waste woes.

The company, which cleans out folks' septic tanks, will likely be cited, Mayor LaDue Scovill said Wednesday.

Employees were caught earlier this year dumping into a city manhole and again last week, Scovill said. The sudden rush of effluent into the already heavily taxed sewer lagoons resulted in a pungent odor by throwing off the bacteria count.

City officials have been struggling for months to contain the odor when they caught septic tank workers dumping the effluent.

"We don't know how long it's been going on," Scovill said.

The city first became aware of the lagoons' odor problem last summer, but the company could have been dumping prior to then, he said.

Stopping the illegal dumping won't solve Santaquin's sewer troubles. Its 10-year-old sewer lagoons are considered a poor solution, and with the more than 2,000-acre Summit Ridge development starting construction, the city must come up with another way to handle its sewer waste, officials say. The lagoons were designed with a 20-year life, but Summit Ridge could quickly exceed that.

Officials are also concerned about spillage from lagoons, not only because of odor but because spills contain chlorine, which harms wildlife, Elk Ridge City Councilman Gary Bowen said. Elk Ridge effluent now goes to Salem, which also treats it with lagoons.

A pipeline to the expanded Payson sewage treatment plant would provide a more permanent solution, Scovill said. Other south Utah County cities that may consider joining in are Elk Ridge, Salem and Woodland Hills.

Elk Ridge owns 18 percent of Salem's sewer lagoons, Bowen said, while Woodland Hills homes are all on septic tanks. Future development there could threaten Elk Ridge water supplies.

"Payson is big enough to handle Santaquin's, Elk Ridge's, Salem's and Woodland Hills' sewer treatment," Bowen said.

Elk Ridge already has a plan to connect to Payson's sewer treatment plant, thanks to developer Don Mecham's efforts to sewer his once-planned Payson Canyon resort. Mecham paid for the engineering, and Elk Ridge ended up with the plan gratis after Mecham sold his canyon land to Payson, Bowen said.

But a broader solution remains under discussion.