In response to renewed concern over a two-mile swath of dead and dying trees at Red Lodge's sewer lagoon, the state Department of Environmental Quality recently took some samples at the site, although DEQ officials are confident that an imminent facility improvement plan will correct any imbalance that might be causing the vegetative mortality. Samples were taken Jan. 30 by DEQ specialist Linda Hills of Helena following a discussion at City Hall, during which Carbon County Planner and Sanitarian Greg McGann complained about the abandonment of a testing program announced last fall by Robert Foster of DEQ's Billings Enforcement Division. Foster had planned to conduct diagnostic testing after an on-site investigation last summer, but Hills in a telephone interview Tuesday morning said the department scrapped that plan in the belief that the city's upcoming sewer improvement project will fix the problem. The split treatment method that has been designed for Red Lodge will stop current leakage of nutrient-loaded effluent from the city's undersized facility, a factor suspected in the tree mortality. Hills said she doubts that the water samples she took last week to examine for nutrients will provide any conclusive evidence, but may give some information.
Hills firmly doubts the presence of any toxins in the wastewater.
Were that the case, she said, the biological process conducted by the lagoon itself would have ceased to function. Sewer system improvements have been mandated by the DEQ, which says that the current lagoon is greatly undersized for current flows. In the project's first phase, ponds in the current lagoon will be reconstructed and lined to prevent leakage, and mechanical aeration will be added. In the second phase, expected about 2003, wastewater will be land applied during summer months. Mayor Brian Roat told those residents that while there are no water rights on sewer water, the city will cooperate with the landowners in any way possible to find a new source of water.