Wing, North Dakota
Written by Julia Hein, EPA Region 8 Category 2 Specialist
Wing is a small rural Burleigh County, North Dakota city. Wing was incorporated in 1911 and was named for Charles K. Wing, who platted the area. Wing was founded as a railroad town on the Great Northern Railroad. The closest large city is Bismarck, located in the state's center. The Wing wastewater system serves a population of 132 permanent residents. The system consists of a collection system serving 82 residential and commercial accounts, one lift station, and a three-cell lagoon system. Wing's collection system is primarily gravity-fed to the wastewater lift station. The 8,978 linear feet of wastewater mains comprised vitrified clay pipe and PVC piping but were relined with cured-in-place pipe in 2019. Wing's lift station was built in 1958, refurbished in 1976, and is now in poor condition. It has not been well maintained over the past couple of decades. It is not known when the lift station was last cleaned. Surface water from the surrounding slough is infiltrating through cracks in the walls of the wet well, filling it to almost overflowing. An antiquated fan in the pit of the lift station disperses foul air out into the surrounding atmosphere. Two pumps push the effluent water approximately 20 feet to the lagoon system. When inspected in the fall of 2021, the pumps were determined to be in poor to fair condition. The weather head over the lift station is made of a wood frame with sheet metal. The metal is rusted, cracked, and falling off in places. Because of the condition of the weather head, the electrical control panel inside is corroded and in poor condition. A red warning light is installed outside the building to indicate to the public works director that a pump is not operating. The three-cell lagoon is full to overflowing most of the summer because of the surface water infiltrating the lift station.
On October 30, 2023, the red light at the lift station came on. A red light indicates the pumps are not working correctly. The water operator went out to see what was going on. He discovered that the relay switches in the electrical panel were humming, but the pumps were not running. Not understanding what was happening, he called an electrician who said nothing was wrong with relays or switches. The next day, the operator went out to check on things and discovered that wastewater was coming up from the manholes on the floor. He immediately called the North Dakota Rural Water Systems Association for assistance.
It was suggested that the operator call the company that does their annual inspection and cleaning, which he did. In the meantime, the operator ran two trash pumps to bypass the lagoon and emptied the lift station's wet well. The North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality was called to explain the situation and report the bypass. The crew from the cleaning company arrived five hours later and began pumping and troubleshooting the problem. The fire department was called and asked to bring out a fire truck to help clean the pipe between the wet and dry well, which was plugged with sludge. The next day, a vac truck was called to remove four feet of sludge from the bottom of the wet well.
The Project & Funding Specialist sat down with the city council, the mayor, and the operator and discussed options for the future. Option one was to do nothing and continue cleaning and inspecting yearly with the possibility of the situation happening again. Option two was to contact their engineering firm to apply for an SRF PAR grant to study the problem. With the grant covering most of the cost of the engineering study, the council voted to have the engineer complete the study. At a public hearing, the engineering firm presented the results of that study.
At the November city council meeting, the council voted to replace the lift station and rehabilitate the lagoon. The city was awarded a Community Development Building Grant of $2.2 million for the total cost of the construction of the project. The city is also applying for a USDA-RD grant of $600,000 for engineering costs and contingencies. Construction is scheduled to begin in the summer of 2024. In the meantime, the operator continues to monitor the situation at the lift station. He has had to discharge the lagoon cells a couple of times. All samples taken from the lagoon have passed. In March 2024, the Project & Funding Specialist worked with Moore Engineering to work through the city's financials to determine where they are financially and if the rates for the wastewater system need to be raised to cover the balance of the loan/grant from USDA-Rural Development.
If the city of Wing had done nothing, the annual cost for inspection, cleaning, and possible repair could total up to $5,000. The lifetime cost of this decision over the next 40 years is enormous. By replacing the lift station and lagoon, the city has an initial investment of a couple hundred thousand dollars with repayment over 40 years. Increased sewer rates will add this cost to the residents' utility bills. The city will have minimum maintenance costs for the first ten years. They will continue to employ the services of the cleaning and inspection company.