Elk Mound hires Davy Engineering as consultants for new phosphorus limits
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
ELK MOUND — The Elk Mound Village Board has approved hiring Davy Engineering as consultants at a cost of $5,000 to assist the village with phosphorus discharge limits for the wastewater treatment plant.
The village received the new wastewater treatment permit from the state Department of Natural Resources in October 2019, said Mark Levra, director of public works, at the Elk Mound Village Board’s February 5 meeting.
The DNR was six years past due in issuing the permit, and the permit now has a low phosphorus limit, he said.
The phosphorus limit set for Elk Mound is .075 milligrams per liter, and the wastewater treatment plant is discharging 2.6 milligrams per liter, Levra said.
Since the phosphorus limit is new, Levra said he did not feel comfortable writing reports for the DNR on the wastewater treatment plant’s phosphorus discharge.
Elk Mound also has a copper variance, and before he retired, Terry Stamm, former public works director, taught Levra how to write the copper reports for the DNR.
Stamm currently serves as a trustee on the village board.
Levra said he feels confident about writing the copper reports.
The first phosphorus report is due in September of this year, and Levra said he was proposing to hire Davy Engineering to assist with the first and second reports.
The second report is due a year after the first report, he noted.
Davy Engineering would charge $3,500 for the first report, which will deal with the amount of phosphorus coming into the wastewater treatment plant and the amount of phosphorus being discharged, Levra said.
Davy Engineering would charge $1,500 for the second report, which will deal with how to correct the sources of phosphorus in the wastewater treatment system or how to reduce the sources, he said.
Davy Engineering, Levra noted, is the company that designed Elk Mound’s wastewater treatment plant.
The village hired SEH (Short Elliott Hendrickson) as consultants when the copper variance was first part of the wastewater treatment permit, Stamm said.
Levra pointed out he was able to write the copper reports because the village had hired SEH “at the start.”
Greg Kipp, village trustee, who chaired the meeting in the absence of Steven Abraham, said he supposed it came down to “learning the proper language.”
Once a template was established for the copper variance report, it became a matter of “plugging in the numbers,” for the each year’s report, Stamm said.
The Elk Mound Village Board unanimously approved hiring Davy Engineering as consultants for the wastewater treatment plant phosphorus limits.
In addition to Kipp and Stamm, voting in favor of the motion were Village Trustees Paula Turner, Jesse Jenson, Deborah Creaser-Kipp, and Rebecca Livingston.
The phosphorus reports are probably only the start of the village’s expenses for coming into compliance with the phosphorus limit set by the DNR, Levra said.
Other business
In other business, the Elk Mound Village Board:
• Took no action on the agenda item “operator license application for Matthew Hoffman.” Hoffman is no longer employed by the Pourhouse, said Elk Mound Police Chief Chad Weinberger.
• Approved an ordinance changing the Elk Mound Village Board meeting dates from the first and third Wednesday of each month to the first and third Monday of each month. The ordinance will go into effect for the first meeting in May on May 4.
• Approved replacing hydrant No. 19, which is located near Elk Mound High School, at a cost of $4,471 for the hydrant and $4,000 for installation. The valve is stuck in the open position and can only be used in an emergency, Levra said. The hydrant will be replaced this summer after school is out, he said.
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