Fairview considers reclamation facility to meet new standard

By Angela Marx Thompson

Staff Writer

6-13-2019

FAIRVIEW—The Fairview City Council is looking into designing a water reclamation facility to meet new EPA water standards for phosphate.

Fairview, along with all other cities in Utah, is required to address phosphate levels in the city’s sewer treatment system in accordance with new EPA standards, said Mayor David Taylor.

The city would need to either address the situation with additional chemical treatments or put a water reclamation facility into production. The council determined at a meeting May 16 that while the chemical treatment route would be more cost effective, it would not provide a lasting solution.

The reclaimed waste water might potentially augment the city’s irrigation supply and the city’s cemetery could be the initial recipient of the newly reclaimed water, the council decided.

Thus, the city is just beginning to explore alternatives to enhancing or upgrading its sewer treatment facility, Mayor Taylor said. “There is nothing to report on the size or scope of the project,” he said. “We are just in the exploration stages.”

With the Fairview Canyon mudslide taking out the “spring line,” the city is focusing on getting the water line fixed first, Mayor Taylor said.

Nonetheless, the new law requires a solution to be identified by the end of this year, with a working solution implemented by the end of 2022.

And it looks like the initial engineering design by Horrocks Engineering will cost about $100,000.

Drew Giger, Horrocks project engineer, indicated that a feasibility survey was complete and that the project could successfully move into the design phase. Giger estimated that the cost of the engineering design would come to $100,000. This money would essentially need to be “cash out of pocket” for the city as the design is required before any monetary assistance, such as a Community Impact Board (CIB) project grant, can be applied for.

Councilman Cliff Wheeler noted that the current tentative budget would have to be amended as this money had not been considered when the budget was drafted. Giger committed Horrocks to working at the council’s pace. He indicated that if the city needed to pay overtime, then Horrocks would schedule resources accordingly, with no need to pay a lump sum up front.

Mayor Taylor reminded the council that the application for CIB project funding would need to be completed in January of 2020. The council noted that this was a necessary project step and committed to finding the necessary funds in an upcoming work meeting before the budget was finalized at the June council meeting.

It is anticipated that Horrocks will receive the green light to finish their design work by the end of June and Giger anticipated no difficulty in completing design work by November, giving the council time to get the application completed and submitted by January.