Elk Mound working to resolve ammonia issues at wastewater treatment plant
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
ELK MOUND — Over the past month, the Village of Elk Mound has been dealing with ammonia issues at the wastewater treatment plant.
“We’ve been trying to work on it. It gets better, it gets worse, it gets better and then it gets worse,” said Mark Levra, director of public works, at the Elk Mound Village Board’s November 18 meeting during his report to the village board.
Part of the problem, Levra said, is that he does not receive lab reports until 19 days after the samples are submitted.
The latest sample for which he had received a report was for a sample submitted on October 31.
Levra noted that he had received the report on the day of the village board meeting.
“When we are making corrections, we can’t see the results fast enough,” Levra said.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is aware of the problem. Elk Mound is working with the DNR and with the Wisconsin Rural Water Association to try to resolve the problem, he said.
Test results do not seem to indicate that the high ammonia was the result of a “slug load” from somewhere, Levra said.
The microbiology at the wastewater treatment plant got upset somehow, “and we’re trying to get it back,” he said.
“I do not know how or why it happened, but I am working to correct it,” Levra said.
“In a [wastewater treatment] plant our size, it doesn’t take much to upset it,” he said.
There could have been a “slug load” that came through 45 days ago that no one was aware of, Levra pointed out.
The odd thing is that the same problem occurred one year ago, although the previous problem was not so extreme, he said.
Elk Mound is discharging ammonia at about six times the limit established for Elk Mound, and last year, the wastewater treatment plant was discharging about three times the limit, Levra said.
Last year, the problem was able to be corrected in a month, he said.
At one point, the problem seemed resolved, “but then it slipped away again,” Levra said.
Levra said he has resorted to “dip testing” every day for ammonia, and what is being done seems like it is “going in the right direction.”
Chilled effluent
Representatives for the DNR visited Elk Mound last week, Levra said.
Elk Mound was supposed to receive a new Wastewater Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (WPDES) permit in September, he noted.
The people from the DNR wanted to run some tests because there could be a temperature limit assigned in the new permit. If temperature limits are set for the discharge, then the DNR “could force us to chill the effluent before it enters the wetland,” Levra said.
The temperature of the effluent from the wastewater treatment plant “pretty much matches” the groundwater temperature, he said, noting that the wastewater becomes a couple of degrees warmer from being inside of the building.
The DNR personnel walked through the plant, tested the cascade and then tested the wetland in the hope that there would not have to be a temperature limit, Levra said.
Walking trail
Steve Lippert of JT Engineering was on the November 18 agenda to talk about a walking trail project.
Lippert would have been at the meeting, but he was unable to get a finalized contract for the feasibility study by the time of the meeting, Levra said.
The cost for the feasibility study is expected to be not more than $15,000, he said.
The study will assess the feasibility of where to locate walking trails in the village. If a feasibility study is completed, then the walking trail project would be grant eligible, Levra said.
The walking trail would have to be a hard surface, protected from traffic and would have to be a minimum of eight feet wide, Levra said.
If the walking trail is constructed where there is existing sidewalk, the village would have to acquire more right-of-way to widen the sidewalks, and the utility poles also would have to be moved, he said.
One possibility for a walking trail is from University Street to Juniper Avenue to Mound Park Drive and then back to the village park. Another possibility is to make a walking trail from the end of North Holly Avenue eight feet wide to the park, or from the I-94 bridge to the village park eight feet wide, Levra said.
Both of those possibilities for a walking trail, either from North Holly or the I-94 bridge, would be grant eligible, he said.
JT Engineering is thinking the two sections leading directly to the village park would be “the best bang for the buck,” Levra noted.
Terry Stamm, village president, pointed out that grants always come with stipulations for the maintenance of projects, too.
The issue of a feasibility study for walking trails can be put on the agenda for the December meeting when more information is expected to be available, Levra said.
