City plans two major projects in 2013

BONNE TERRE —  in 2013, City Administrator Larry Barton says Bonne Terre will be facing two major projects mandated by the EPA and DNR — projects city leaders have been planning for and dreading for years due to the expense.

“On the water side of the issue the city has to install means for removing (radionuclides) from the drinking water,” Barton said. “The engineering study is nearly complete and it’s time now to begin the decision of what type of removal to go with.”

He said it looks as though it will mean drilling a fourth well.  

“The engineers and myself will be meeting with different representatives from companies that deal with the radionuclide removal,” Barton said. “EPA has set the standards for (radionuclides) in drinking water and, at this time, we barely exceed that limit.”

On the sewer side, the city is looking at re-lining approximately 2,000 lineal feet of sewer line.

“This is a very expensive process, but should prove less costly since restoration sill is at a minimum,” he said. “This is being done to prevent the infiltration of storm water getting into the sanitary sewer system.”

He said at this point he doesn’t have a good solid figure on cost for either project.  

“However, I’m led to believe that the cost of both projects could run as much as 4 to 5 million dollars,” he said.

He said the city has no choice in the matter of doing this. Residents of Bonne Terre can expect to pay for this in the form of rate increases.

“The financial obligation we’re going to face can’t be met using sales tax alone,” he said. “Faced with these two issues, it is going to limit any other projects that had been anticipated. I’ll just have to do what I can and pray that our town is fortunate in avoiding any catastrophic incidents.”