The village of Lena is seeking state approval to spend $3.74 million to install equipment that would reduce radium levels in drinking water to accepted standards.
Radium levels in one of the village’s two wells have increased during the past four years. The average of samples drawn last year exceeded maximum contamination levels set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, according to documents filed with the Wisconsin Public Service Commission on Friday.
The village has closed Well No. 1 located on the village’s east side and has used Well No. 2 on the west end.
The village has been under a Department of Natural Resources consent order since June 2013 in which it agreed to design and submit plans for a treatment system and begin construction by July 2015.
The timetable should be easily met, said Sarah Nunn, an engineer with Ayers Associates.
“Construction should start in the late spring and be completed, at least the first phase, by the end of the year,” Nunn said.
Project plans will also be submitted to the DNR for approval, she said.
The village had reviewed three alternatives to treat radium, and Saputo Cheese, USA, the village’s largest water customer, considered installing a treatment facility at its plant and turning it over to the village, according to Nunn.
A call to Brent Hare, a Saputo manufacturing executive, was not returned before deadline.
Plans now call for piping water from both wells to a treatment facility to be constructed within an 80- by 50-foot building on village-owned land on Rosera Street.
“The village … has chosen a treatment plan that’s best financially on the water system, functions best for the waste water system, also for its ease of use and long-term, low-maintenance cost,” Nunn said Monday.
Water used in the treatment process would be run through the village sewer plant.
The village could look for local, short-term financing for the project and use the state’s Safe Drinking Water Loan program for long-term finance, Nunn said.
Grants to reduce the project’s cost are being pursued, and a rate study, a precursor to filing an application for higher water rates, is under way, said Charlene Meier, village clerk.
Village President Steve Marquardt said a rate increase request would probably be filed with the PSC after financing for the radium project is secured.
“We have two possible long-term funding options: the U.S. Department of Agriculture which has a 40-year loan at 2.75 percent and a DNR Safe Drinking Water Loan Program which has a 20-year loan at 1.925 percent…There’s a potential savings of $1.5 million in interest cost with the 20-year loan, but we’re still investigating our options,” he said.
Radium is a radioactive element contained in many rock formations, usually in small amounts, according to a DNR brochure. Long-term exposure to high levels of radium in drinking water may result in increased risk of bone cancer as radium accumulates in bones like calcium.
Lena’s groundwater radium levels were “just above” EPA standards last year, said Steven Elmore, the DNR public water supply section chief.
“If you drank a cup of it there would be no immediate effects, but if someone were to drink it for an extended period it could have an effect if consumed over many years or a lifetime,” he said.
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