Brooke Pankonin | Johnson Publications
Top: Haz-Mat Response, Inc. of North Platte was at the Madrid sewer plant on Tuesday to begin vacuuming the floor of the west lagoon, which was emptied last week. Bottom: Three tanks will be used to discharge partially-treated wastewater into Stinking Water Creek while the lagoons are offline.
Madrid’s sewer lagoons temporarily taken offline
By Brooke Pankonin
Grant Tribune Sentinel
To mitigate the problems with the Village of Madrid’s wastewater lagoons, the lagoon facility has temporarily been taken offline.
Village of Madrid Utilities Superintendent Dave Steinwart updated the village board on the current status of the sewer plant at their meeting on Monday, April 10.
He said the Nebraska Department of Environmental Equality (NDEQ) has given him the steps that need to be taken in order to have the mitigation plan approved.
The project includes the cleaning of the liner in the west lagoon and checking it for leaks. Once that is complete, the liner will be removed.
This work has already been completed on the east lagoon and the sewer system was operating solely on the west lagoon.
While both lagoons are off-
line, wastewater tanks will be used to discharge partially treated wastewater into the dry bed of Stinking Water Creek. The creek hasn’t been used for discharge since the lagoons originally went online two years ago.
Steinwart will collect a once-a-month sample to be tested for carbonaceous biochemical oxygen demand (COBD), total suspended solids (TSS), Escherichia coli (E. coli), pH and ammonia, and perform a daily inspection of the creek where it crosses Road 760.