Great Falls, Mont. – A proposal to improve the sanitary sewer and water system in the community of South Wind, near Great Falls, Montana is currently available for public comment through Oct. 12, 2019.
Proposed improvements to the water system include connecting a water test well to a new distribution system that will consist of a well house for chlorination equipment and several hundred feet of new PVC pipe installed under an existing roadway within the Montana Department of Transportation right-of-way. Additionally, 3,000 linear feet of 6-inch diameter and 680 linear feet of 4-inch diameter PVC water mains and associated structures such as valves and hydrants, along with a new 30,000-gallon partially-buried concrete water storage tank adjacent to the well site would be constructed.
Improvements to the sewer system include construction of a mechanical/package plant and drainfield for wastewater treatment and disposal and rehabilitating the existing piping.
The public is encouraged to provide comments on the project’s supporting documents, which are available for viewing at: www.nwo.usace.army.mil/Missions/Civil-Works/Planning/Project-Reports/. Comments can be mailed to: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District; CENWO-PMA-C; ATTN: Rebecca Podkowka, South Wind EA; 1616 Capitol Avenue; Omaha, NE 68102-4901. Comments can also be emailed to: cenwo-planning@usace.army.mil. Comments must be postmarked or received no later than Oct. 12, 2019.
BACKGROUND: A Montana Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program Consolidated Environmental Assessment and subsequent Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) was completed in January 2015 by NCI Engineering, Inc. in accordance with the Housing and Urban Development Environmental Review procedures for the CDBG Program and in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), as amended, the Council on Environmental Quality’s (CEQ) regulations for implementing NEPA (40 CFR 1500-1508). This document assessed the environmental impact of improving the water and sewer system at a trailer court, South Wind, approximately 2 miles south of Great Falls, Montana adjacent to the Missouri River.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ funding for this project is authorized under Section 595 of the 1999 Water Resources Development Act, as amended. This authority allows the Corps to participate in projects for wastewater treatment, water supply, and related facilities in Idaho, Montana, rural Nevada, New Mexico, rural Utah and Wyoming. Design and construction assistance is provided only for projects that are owned by public entities and project costs are shared 75% federal contribution and 25% non-federal contribution. As funding under the Section 595 program is executed, the Corps must assess the environmental impact and determine if a FONSI is appropriate or if an Environmental Impact Statement must be prepared. The Corps has prepared a tiered NEPA document from the analysis in the CDBG EA and FONSI as well as the 2012 Preliminary Engineering Report and has independently evaluated and verified the information in these documents.