Rising lagoon is top council concern
By Edna Sailor
"We’re running out of room and we’re running out of time," said New Town City Coordinator Daryl Lyson.
Lyson’s information sparked a lengthy conversation about the city lagoon capacity at the regular New Town City Council meeting. Population growth, new businesses and apartments have pressed New Town’s sewage lagoon to its limit.
"We are running out of space. We dumped cell two, but we have to two to three months before refilling it. We are running at capacity now. The cells may last the summer, but we could run out of space within this year," Lyson said.
Some of the problem lies in previous estimates made about household size and predictable usage.
"Many estimates of capacity were made with household sizes in mind. What we see happening is that many homes are not standard capacity anymore. They have many more people living in households using services than what it used to be. That all contributes to the lagoon problem," Lyson said.
Lyson said temporary solutions could mitigate immediate stress on the system.
"The time to get this done is now. A year from now will be too late. We are looking into mechanicals, more cells, and possibly an aerator for the short term," he said.
