City process offers hope for solution

At last there's hope -- genuine hope -- that McCook can meet the deadline for complying with state and federal water quality standards. The turning point came Monday night when the McCook City Council took action on three key parts of the water quality solution.

The decisions -- essential for meeting the March 1, 2006 deadline -- are (1) To have the manufacturer start now to create the equipment for the water treatment plant; (2) To use deep-well injection to get rid of brine from the treatment plant; and (3) To adopt a long-range plan of incremental fee increases to pay for the water and sewer solutions.

A lot is riding on the city's three-part strategy, as McCook could face massive, additional fines from the state and federal government if the community does not meet the March 2006 deadline. That's less than 400 days away, so the rush is on.

The most dramatic part of the plant is to have the manufacturer, Tonka Equipment Co. of Plymouth, Minn., start now to build the equipment for the treatment plant. Although overall design plans are not complete, the start of work on the equipment is essential if McCook is to meet the March deadline.

In the process, McCook will be the recipient of breakthrough technology, as the equipment will be the first in the U.S. to remove a combination of arsenic, uranium and nitrates.

The cost of the equipment development will be just over $2 million. That's based on the bid from Tonka Equipment opened Monday night. The overall water treatment project will cost much more, with the total overall estimate for the water treatment plant placed at above $13 million. In addition, the city is facing expenditures of more than $3 million for solving the wastewater disposal problem, making the overall cost of the city projects close to $17 million.

Other breakthroughs are coming as McCook advances with the water treatment project. Deep-well injection for the disposal of brine will be another innovation. While not used often for municipal water brine disposal, the deep well injection method is familiar in this area because of its use in oil fields.

There's still a long way to go for McCook to meet the water quality deadline. But, at least, after Monday night's meeting there is now hope the planning and building of the treatment plant can be completed on time.