Water System Upgrades

The town has established the following goals and objectives for the project:

  • Its first goal is to prepare a plan to address the “Significant Deficiency Determination” issued by Montana DEQ on January 23, 2025, by meeting the following objectives:
    • Initial Phase—Complete testing and troubleshooting of the existing drinking water system by working with DEQ Capacity Development Technical Assistance and its consulting engineer to evaluate low-cost installations, operational modifications, and recommendations.
    • Interim Phase – Perform engineering alternatives analysis, including evaluating potential improvements and measures to address the chlorine, iron bacteria, and manganese issues identified by DEQ in January 2025.
      • The alternatives analysis will include an evaluation of the potential improvements, associated costs, and funding options for potential upgrades.
    • Pilot Testing Phase – Based on the results of the alternatives analysis, perform pilot-scale testing of potential water treatment system improvements.
    • Treatment System Upgrades – Have a professional engineer complete the design of a new treatment system.
    • Complete a Preliminary Engineering Report (PER) to evaluate the entire water system and evaluate long-term improvements.  The PER will be the basis for the town’s applications for state and federal grant and loan funding to complete the construction of the treatment project and other identified improvements identified in the PER

The ultimate goal is to successfully complete the improvements necessary to address the deficiencies identified by Montana’s DEQ, ensuring that each Saco resident has safe and affordable drinking water in their home, school, and businesses.

The project under consideration is to construct an oxide-based filtration/absorption system to remove manganese from Saco’s drinking water using pressure. Depending on the selected media, chemical doses of chlorine or permanganate may be required for regeneration. An initial study/alternatives analysis will determine the best way to address the manganese and chlorine situation, followed by a pilot study to verify the effectiveness of the treatment method. The pilot study would occur before the design phase to inform the design parameters and filtration system.

Wastewater Upgrades

The Town of Saco owns and manages the community’s wastewater system.  The system includes a collection system, a lift station, and a lagoon treatment system.  The collection system is made up of 14,000 feet of gravity sewer main that is made of mostly vitrified clay pipe (VCP). The treatment system is a two-cell facultative lagoon system that discharges into Beaver Creek once or twice in a year.  There have been few improvements to the existing wastewater system and upgrades are needed to bring the system up to the latest standards and compliance.

The Town needs to address the following wastewater system issues:

  • Much of the gravity sewer main in the system has sags, root intrusion and cracking.  As a result of the piping, there have been several instances of sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs) in the Town.  The poor condition of this pipe needs to be addressed to prevent future SSOs.  This is shown in recent sewer pipe video inspections.
  • The system has additional flow from infiltration and inflow into the collection system.  Repairing and replacing piping will reduce the water in the collection system will reduce the hydraulic loading to the lift system and treatment lagoons.
  • The lift station has issues with capacity, corrosion, and functionality.  The lift station reached the end of its useable design life, and upgrades are needed to ensure the lift station can operate effectively and meet future demand.
  • The current lift station site lacks backup power and proper security measures.  Without these elements, public health is at risk because the public has potential access to untreated wastewater or a power outage may result in an SSO.
  • From 2016 to 2021, the current treatment system has received 14 violations for exceeding their discharge permit of TSS, BOD, and E. coli.  Improvements and upgrades are needed to reduce the concentration of these contaminants in discharged water.
  • The lagoons have not had sludge removed in over 60 years, and the lagoons’ treatment ability and storage capacity have been greatly diminished.  Sludge removal is needed to improve treatment and increase the storage volume of the lagoons.
  • Several control valves at the lagoons are no longer operational, and some of the concrete of the control structures have degraded severely.  These components need to be replaced and repaired for the Town to operate and maintain the treatment lagoons effectively.

A wastewater PER evaluated alternatives to identify deficiencies in the collection system, lift station, and treatment facilities in order to protect public health and bring the wastewater system into compliance with DEQ standards.  The PER analyzed the problems with the system to determine the necessary improvements and the priority of the upgrades to the wastewater system.