The city of Sandpoint has received a $500,000 grant from the state of Idaho to build a wastewater treatment plant that one of Sandpoints largest employers, Litehouse Inc., says is necessary for it to grow.


Litehouse, which makes salad dressings, dips, and sauces, wants eventually to build a new manufacturing plant in Sandpoint, and the new wastewater treatment facility will make that possible, says Paul Kusche, director of operations and information systems for the company. Litehouse doesnt yet have a timetable for constructing the new plant, he says.


Its five-year capital plan, however, calls for Litehouse to spend $8.5 million to $9 million to maintain the competitiveness of this business, and to create 52 new jobs because of that growth, Kusche says. The company currently employs 250.


Construction of the new wastewater plant should start next month on about a quarter of an acre of land owned by the city near the Sandpoint Airport, says Kody Van Dyk, Sandpoints public works director.


The wastewater plant will be a compact facility consisting of two tanks and two covered structures that are not tall enough for a man to stand up in, Van Dyk says. It will be operated remotely by computer from another location. Its expected to take a quarter of one persons workday to keep the system running, he says.


The projects total cost will be about $700,000 to $800,000, Kusche says. Litehouse and the city of Sandpoint still are negotiating how much of that bill each will pay above the $500,000 covered by the community development block grant, he says. Also unanswered is what fees Litehouse will pay to treat its wastewater there, he says.


Litehouse expects to use about half of the plants total capacity, or about 2,500 gallons per day, Kusche says. Sandpoint officials have said that the remaining capacity could be used to attract other food-processing companies to their area.


The new plant has been designed specifically to treat wastewater that contains byproducts, such as buttermilk and canola oil, of Litehouses dressing, sauce and dip making operations, Van Dyk says. The wastewater will be trucked to the treatment plant from Litehouses manufacturing plant a mile away.


An anaerobic process will pretreat the wastewater, separating out some waste and converting it to methane gas, which then will be burned. Whats left either will be in the form of inert solids, which will be sent to a landfill, or liquids, which will be discharged into Sandpoints sewer system, Van Dyk says.


For the past year and a half, Litehouse has trucked its so-called first rinse wastewaterwhich contains too many solids to be discharged directly into the sewer systemto Montana to be sprayed onto fields, Kusche says.


Even so, land application is environmentally the incorrect thing to do long term, Kusche says.