By Jolene Farley
The city of Steen has filed an application with United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development for financial assistance with the intent of building another wastewater treatment pond.
Steen currently has two ponds located southwest of town with 14,000 gallons capacity in each pond. The new pond the city hopes to construct will hold 27,000 gallons of wastewater, according to Steen Mayor Melvin Van Batavia.
Steen would continue to use the two original ponds even after construction of the new pond, almost doubling wastewater capacity.
"Twenty years ago Steen was all retired people," said Van Batavia. "Now with more families we are using more water."
The first step toward acquiring funds from Rural Development is ordering a preliminary estimate of the work to be done and coming up with a preliminary plan. The Steen City Council retained the services of the engineering firm Mateffy Inc., Minneapolis, for this job.
The city is hoping Rural Development will award half of the $294,000 price tag of the project in a grant and will loan the balance of the cost of the project at 4.5 percent interest.
Interest rates on Rural Development loans are based on ability to pay. Consequently Steen could be forced to pay a higher interest rate because the city has little debt.
Sewer rates on the 74 hookups in Steen could be raised an additional $10 to defray the cost of the loan, according to Van Batavia.
He stressed there are many steps in the funding process. Construction of the pond could be at least two or more years away.
After an environmental assessment is done, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency must approve the plan.
After MPCA approval and several other steps, Steen will be placed on a waiting list. Allocation of money could change subject to the dollars given to the program by the Minnesota State Legislature.
Cities higher up the waiting list using more funds than anticipated could force an even longer wait.
In the meantime, the city is unable to comply with the MPCA regulation of discharging only six inches a day of wastewater after April 15 for 60 days and again after Sept. 15 for 60 days.
"If we did that we would never get caught up," said Van Batavia. "The ponds would overflow."
Steen began pumping April 11, about two weeks before the regulation specifies with permission of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.