City of Dike wraps up wastewater treatment plant project; council looks to raise water, sewer rates to fund improvement

Nearly two years after launching an extensive $4.6 million project to bring the city of Dike's wastewater treatment facility up to code, officials are ready to call it a wrap.
 
Mayor Mike Soppe says that although the project was expensive, it was necessary since the plant was long overdue for an upgrade - not to mention many of the upgrades were mandatory in order for the city to meet compliance standards.
           
“Our former sewer plant was running at 40 years of its projected 25 year life,” said Mayor Mike Soppe. “Not only was it necessary to make the upgrades to avoid a disaster, but now we’re up to code with the new DNR regulations and we can avoid being fined.”
           
The project at the wastewater treatment plant includes the construction of a new lift station and pumps - which has increased overall flow and capacity - as well as several new aeration ditches, an equalization station, additional sludge storage, a detention basin and a UV disinfection wastewater treatment system.
           
City Supervisor Shane Metz says the improvements at the wastewater treatment plant have significantly increased the capacity of the facility, diverting issues of backups like the city had with the old facility.
           
“With the old system, if there was high flow times like heavy rain, our system would back up and we’d get called out at 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning to man the backup diesel pumps at the lift station to make sure the storm water made it out of the plant and not into citizens’ basements.”
 
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