S.F., Brandon debate wastewater

Sioux Falls is urging the city of Brandon to rethink its plans for building new sewage treatment lagoons south of town.

City officials say they’re too close to the Sioux Falls growth area, and they worry what it will mean for water quality if more systems discharge into the Big Sioux River. They want Brandon to continue to send waste to Sioux Falls, where there is plenty of capacity at a more efficient mechanical treatment facility.

At issue is Brandon’s 20-year contract with Sioux Falls, which expires this month.

Brandon — along with other communities considering expanding their water treatment plants — says having its own system will save money in the long run.

“It makes financial sense, building our own infrastructure,” Brandon City Administrator Bryan Read said.

Rates customers pay won’t be affected much whether Brandon builds or stays with Sioux Falls for wastewater treatment, Read said. In 20 years, though, it’s expected that Sioux Falls rates will be higher.

Sioux Falls hired its own company to review Brandon’s wastewater plan this spring. It found the proposed lagoons were undersized and the city wasn’t accounting for stricter water-quality requirements.

Sioux Falls Public Works Director Mark Cotter told his city council Tuesday that comparing customer rates, the choice between building lagoons in Brandon and sending waste to Sioux Falls is almost a wash.

“There’s no financial advantage for them to take on the risk and to build their own lagoons,” he said.

Other growing communities around Sioux Falls are discussing wastewater issues as well. To the north, Dell Rapids, which treats is own waste, is considering building more capacity into its treatment ponds.

Harrisburg, like Brandon, currently sends some of its waste to Sioux Falls and also is looking to expand its own system. The city’s lagoons were built to serve 900 people, but the population has grown beyond 5,000. Building new lagoons would be a third of the cost of pumping waste to Sioux Falls during the next 20 years, Harrisburg City Administrator Andrew Pietrus said.

To extend their wastewater treatment agreement, Sioux Falls wants a development charge of $2,300 for every home in Harrisburg. Pietrus worries that it also would give Sioux Falls broad powers in annexing land and issuing building permits in Harrisburg.

Vetting the new site

The Sioux Falls and Brandon city councils last week discussed extending their agreement, at least for long enough to study Brandon’s chosen site for a new lagoon system and build it.

The Brandon council removed a provision in the agreement that Sioux Falls had required. It would tie them to putting the lagoons on a certain parcel of land. The Sioux Falls council is scheduled to vote on the agreement next week.

The site, owned by the Blachowske family, is south of Huset’s Speedway on the east side of Highway 11.

The area is dotted with burial sites from Native American tribes. Augustana College will begin an archaeological study soon. Finding human remains there would create some pretty big hurdles to building the lagoons there, Read said.

He said Brandon is exploring other sites, as well.

Sioux Falls councilors brought up concerns about flooding in the area. A portion of the land Brandon plans to buy is in the 200-year floodplain, but it’s not where the lagoons would go, according to Read.

“The whole area was under water this spring,” Sioux Falls City Councilor Kenny Anderson Jr. said.

Mitigating the smell

With a new treatment plant, the north side lagoons in Brandon would be removed. That’s what many north-side residents would like to see. More than ever this summer, they’ve been bothered by the smell. City Hall gets calls weekly.

“The town’s growing basically right around the waste ponds,” Brandon Public Works Director Rollie Hoeke said.

Despite the smell, new homes are being built in the Stone Ridge Estates neighborhood, but nearby, one resident said the smell stopped some homes in his neighborhood from selling this summer.

The back deck of Chad Crull’s Westview Drive home overlooks the lagoons. The smell was the worst it’s been in the 10 years he’s lived there, he said.

“I think that has come with the population and overuse,” he said, adding that it’s gotten better since the city made some adjustments.

Read said the city is not sure what caused the smell, but in one of the ponds, there have been problems getting the chemical balance to stabilize. It was dredged a couple years ago, and it takes about two years to stabilize again, Read said. Plus, the cold winter didn’t help add oxygen — the ingredient needed to break down waste more quickly.

A new aeration system they’ll install within the month should add more oxygen and keep smells down, he said.

New lagoons would use a different technology meant to keep smells down, Read said. All ponds would be aerated — which speeds up the treatment process — and the wastewater would go to a system that uses rock beds to further treat the sewage.

20-year capacity

It would be built to handle waste for the next 20 years and would have the capacity to serve 17,000 residents. Brandon currently has more than 9,000 people.

“This is a long-term solution for us,” Read said.

The current lagoons — built in the early 1980s — are at capacity, but they handle less than half of the waste Brandon produces.

If Brandon decides not to build its own treatment facility and instead sends all of its waste to Sioux Falls, Read said, it probably will keep the old ponds around for emergency storage.

Brandon produces 700,000 gallons of waste in a day. It sends about 475,000 gallons to Sioux Falls. Daily flows to Sioux Falls increased in March when the Brandon lagoons were in danger of overflowing.

Cotter said putting another treatment plant on the river could raise discharge standards for everyone.

“It could end up costing both of our cities more,” he said.

Through most of its 20-year contract, Brandon has paid about 75 cents per 1,000 gallons of sewage it pumps to Sioux Falls. That went up substantially in 2012 when the city did a major regionalization study. Brandon now pays $3.89 per 1,000 gallons.

That means about $350,000 per year to Sioux Falls.

Brandon residents started paying more on their water and sewer bills earlier this year.

The new system would cost $10.5 million.

“Nothing in wastewater is cheap,” Read said.

Brandon’s Plan

NEW LAGOONS: Larger, fully aerated lagoons, would use a treatment system known as submerged attached growth reactor, which should keep smells down. The lagoons on the northwest side of town would be taken out of service.

THE SITE: The city of Brandon is looking to purchase the Blachowske property, south of Huset’s Speedway, east of Highway 11.

STUDIES: Augustana College will perform an archaeological study. Finding ancient human remains could preclude the property from being used for lagoons.