Harper Valley sewage plant soon to be shuttered

The Harper Valley Waste Treatment Plant at the Harper Valley Subdivison in Kirtland will be decommissioned under a plan to send the waste it processes to another facility. (Jon Austria The Daily Times)

The Harper Valley Waste Treatment Plant is pictured Thursday at the Harper Valley Subdivison in Kirtland. (Jon Austria The Daily Times)

FARMINGTON Construction to disconnect the Harper Valley subdivision from a sewage plant out of compliance with Environmental Protection Agency standards may begin this fall.

EPA officials have said the wastewater treatment plant in the subdivision, now the main residential area of the town of Kirtland, needs to close in the next three years.

Earlier this month, the San Juan County Commission approved a Clean Water Revolving Loan Fund package from the New Mexico Environment Department to finance the project. The package is for $600,938, according to county documents. Of that, $248,281 will come from a grant, and the rest of the needed funds will be loaned, according to county documents. The county will administer the state funds.

The project is estimated to cost $676,290, but officials are also budgeting for approximately $100,000 more in contingency funds that would finance unexpected expenses, said Larry Hathaway, Harper Valley Homeowners Association president, and the county's general services and community development administrator.

"Hopefully, we'll come in around $600,000, but we'll just have to wait and see," he said.

New Mexico Environment Department officials are now writing an agreement for the County Commission and the department's cabinet secretary, Ryan Flynn, to sign. Once that is approved, and after the project is designed, which could take two to three months, construction could begin in September, Hathaway said.

The goal of the project is to decommission the wastewater treatment plant. To do that, crews will upgrade the sewage pumping station at the plant and lay pipe from the station to another pumping station where County Road 6100 meets U.S. Highway 64. From there, the subdivision's waste will be pumped into the Valley Water and Sanitation District's sewer system.

This project is one of many other wastewater system improvements included on the county's infrastructure capital improvements plan. It is the fourth priority. The first priority, a project costing approximately $9 million, is the first phase of connecting Flora Vista's wastewater system to Farmington's.

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Harper Valley sewage plant soon to be shuttered