Curtiss WWTP on the clock as DNR wants answers

By Neal Hogden

The Curtiss Village Board was up against the clock as it called a special board meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 30. The board needed to finalize plans for its new chemical building as part of the village’s wastewater treatment plant plan.

The village has until Feb. 1 to get the plans sent to the Wisconsin DNR after the DNR gave the village a deadline in order to get back in compliance. This comes after the DNR sent the village a notice of non-compliance for missing previous deadlines to get into compliance with the wastewater treatment plant’s phosphorous levels. According to the DNR’s recollection of the events, the village had repeatedly asked for extensions when submitting its facility plan from 2019 - March 2023.

In its letter to the village, DNR Wastewater Engineer Jenna Monahan said, “The department recognizes that wastewater treatment plant upgrades can be intricate and that working with Abbyland to finalize these decisions has caused some of the project delays. However, the department would like to establish a clear path moving forward as the facility is now three years behind their compliance schedule with no clear path forward.”

At that time, the village was tasked with developing a final time line for finishing the wastewater treatment plant facility plan, final design and construction. The plan was to address final decisions made for ammonia and phosphorus treatment.

Since that point, Curtiss Director of Public Works Larry Swarr has been working with engineers firm CBS Squared on the project and plans for the project have been sent back and forth between CBS Squared engineers and Swarr. The two sides have been working to meet a February 1 deadline set by the DNR in which the village needed to have its finalized plans submitted to the DNR.

Swarr told the board at the meeting that there are over 900 pages of material that include the specs and plans for the project and the contract with CBS Squared for the engineering portion of the project. Swarr also said that throughout the process he has been making adjustments to the plans and sending them back to CBS Squared in an effort to get the best building possible.

Swarr said he originally hoped the plans would allow the village to use either ferric sulfate or ferric chloride to address phosphorous issues within Curtiss wastewater. The village is currently using ferric sulfate because it is currently cheaper and easier to get as they get it through Abbyland on an industrial scale. However, Swarr said it can be more harsh on microbes the village uses to clear sludge. In the future, Swarr said he would like to move to ferric chloride and said this would be possible because the plans for the new chemical building would allow for semis to deliver chemicals, significantly lowering the cost of the material.

Board president Betty Rettig asked if anyone from CBS Squared could attend a future meeting to explain exactly what was in the documents that were sent to Swarr.

“Would it be possible to have someone from CBS Squared to come and talk to the board? Because I really think there are questions we need to ask them.”

Swarr said it would be very unlikely they could speak to a representative from the engineering firm before the February 1 deadline and so the board would be on its own in determining whether to go forward with CBS Squared’s proposal or not that night. Swarr did say he could ask a representative from CBS Squared to attend the village’s monthly meeting on February 5.

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Swarr said the main thing the board needed to decide on was whether or not March 14 was going to work for the village to open up bids for the project. The board determined that would be an acceptable date but Rettig and Jonathan Unruh expressed concern with the complexity of what the village was working with.

Swarr noted that the village would potentially be building before they have the DNR go-ahead and any changes the DNR might have would require a change order to adjust plans.

Unruh told Swarr that if at any point when Swarr was reviewing the documents for the project, if he needed someone to bounce things off of, he could reach out to Unruh.

“I can see how people end up with buildings they don’t want,” Swarr said of the lengthy facility plans he was sent.

Swarr went through some of the basics of the plan which included a larger driveway for semi access. The board agreed that Swarr would attempt to review as many of the documents as he could and give CBS Squared a final round of notes before submitting the official proposal to the DNR on Thursday, Feb. 1.

The estimated cost of the building was not immediately available but Swarr estimated the building would cost well over the original estimation of $120,000.

Other business

n Rettig said she noticed someone was setting off fireworks within village limits again without a permit. The board said they would send out a memo in the next water bill reminding residents they need a permit to set off fireworks within village limits.