Project will cost $10.8 million, should be completed by fall 2010

The Utah Water Quality Board has opened the spigot to federal stimulus funding for Stockton to install the town’s first sewer system.

At a meeting in St. George on Wednesday, the board approved an $8.8 million grant and a $2 million, 30-year interest-free loan for the project.

According to Stockton Mayor Dan Rydalch, this means residents whose homes currently run on septic systems or cesspools will be paying $43 per month for their sewer bill — in addition to $34 for other utilities.

The funding ends a long saga for Stockton residents, who have wrangled over whether or not to install a sewer system for the last eight years. In 2005, the town’s residents voted against installing a new system because the sewer bill would have cost residents $56 to $75 per month.

“Everything is going to be a go,” Rydalch said. “If we don’t go with it this time, [the residents] will hang us.”

Rydalch, who attended the St. George meeting with engineer John Iverson of Sunrise Engineering — an engineering firm the town of Stockton has hired as a consultant for the project — said the water board threw in a $50,000 grant to help with the acquisition of rightaways the town needs. Stockton must put the project out to bid and have papers signed for construction by Sept. 15 or the project will be dropped and the funding will go to another city or cities.

“That’s what qualified us for stimulus funds,” Rydalch said, “we’re shovel-ready.”

He said the project should go out to bid no later than June or July and construction would begin as soon as a bid is accepted. Rydalch doesn’t believe the construction can go through the winter because it would be too damaging to the roads. However, he hopes the project can be done by fall 2010.

An evaporation pond — similar to a wastewater treatment plant — will be located on land the town owns at the old sod farm on the south side of Stockton. Additionally, sewer lines will need to be buried, with the main line running down Connor Avenue.

Residents will have to foot the costs of hooking their homes up to the system, which Rydalch said could be around $2,500. However, the United States Department of Agriculture told the town it could help with individual loans if needed. The USDA helped fund Stockton’s emergency well and Rydalch is inviting them to the town at a later date to talk with residents about money to help with hookups.

Rydalch also plans to apply for a Community Development Block Grant, which gives assistance for low- to moderate-income neighborhoods for projects such as the sewer system.

The biggest cost of the project revolves around soil testing and possible disposal. Much of Stockton was designated an EPA superfund site and some soil is still contaminated. A 6- to 18-inch cap was placed on top of the contaminated soil. However, after trenches have been dug and sewer pipeline inserted, any excavated soil will have to be tested.

“If we can’t put it back into the pipeline trenches, we’ll have to take it to a landfill that will accept it,” Rydalch said. “That’s what bumped the price up.”

Eight other towns and cities in Utah were also looking to collect on stimulus money to help their water projects. Rydalch said each mayor and city engineer were given five minutes to present their proposal and then answered questions from the board members.

“The board was pretty familiar with the project because of the many times we’ve went before them before,” Rydalch said.

The cities were categorized into three tiers depending on how ready and committed they were to their respective projects. Because Stockton has made many attempts to get a sewer system in place, they were second on the list in the first tier, just below a Duschene project.

“All of the tier ones, including Stockton, if those were approved and if they met the deadline of Sept. 15, all were guaranteed,” Rydalch said.

Missy Thompson: missy@tooeletranscript.com