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Dutton Completes New Sewer Project

By Charlie Keegan

Story Created: Oct 27, 2010 at 4:26 PM MDT

Story Updated: Oct 27, 2010 at 6:28 PM MDT

With the help of stimulus money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, grants, loans and forgivable loans the town of Dutton was able to perform a much needed upgrade on its sewer system.

Mayor Susan Fleshman describes the upgrades to the system as going from the dark ages to modern technology.

A new above ground lift station, a rebuilt lagoon, a new way to discharge water, the Dutton sewer system is better than ever. “At the [old] lift station, pumps would break and we'd have to pull them out. We had no backup generator and we do now at our lift station. Here at the lagoons, one was slowly leaking. They were not lined, all these lagoons are lined. They were not big enough for the population,” Mayor Fleshman says.

Sewage is gravity fed from the town to the lift station, which now has a backup propane generator. It then travels under I-15 to the lagoons. During construction, crews revamped one lagoon and refilled another. As part of the new sewer project, a new storage lagoon was built to help keep the primary lagoon at a constant depth of five feet.

In the past, the lagoons would discharge to a coulee, now water is pumped to an irrigation pivot in a nearby farm. “He [the farmer] benefits from water on his crops and, of course, we get our lagoon drained,” Mayor Fleshman explains.

To help pay off some of the loans, Dutton raised its sewer rates from $5 a month to $41. Mayor Fleshman says residents knew what they were getting into and the need for the system outweighed the cost. Saying, “We had meetings with the engineers and the townspeople, you have to forecast what your bills are going to be. And yes, they knew what they were getting into.”

After a year of construction, the new system is up and running and Mayor Fleshman says there are just a few little things left to do. “A couple of valves need fixing; the bars on our lift station are bent for the gate. Just a few small, cleanup items,” she says.

Nelcon out of Kalispell and Great West Engineering from Helena teamed up as the main contractor and engineering firm for the project.

Construction on the project started in September of 2009 and is expected to total $1.6 million.

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Trquehd said on Wednesday, Oct 27 at 9:26 PM

I'll have to stop and drop the kids off at the lagoon next time I'm in Dutton.

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