Kearsley Construction Inc. plans to start work in April on a new $2.5 million wastewater treatment system in Lind, Wash., says Frank Gowdy, owner of the Spokane Valley-based contracting company. The town of Lind, which awarded Kearsley the contract, is located 76 miles southwest of Spokane, off Interstate 90 past Ritzville.

The Spokane office of Anchorage, Alaska-based USKH Inc. designed the project. Alan Gay, an engineer at USKH, says the planned 66,000 gallon-a-day treatment plant is comparable in size to the one Lind currently has, but that 60-year-old system no longer meets permit requirements and needs to be replaced.

The new treatment system will include a 2,230 square-foot, single-story building, and a deep concrete basin for wastewater. The basin will be built partially into the ground. An intake system that will receive raw sewage from the town and a second station that will send treated wastewater to on-site disposal beds will also be installed, Gay says.

The new system will be built next to the current system, along state Highway 21, which runs through the town of Lind, Gay says. The old system will be torn down once the new one is operating, he says.

Funding for the treatment system is coming from the Washington state Department of Ecology, Centennial Clean Water Fund, state Revolving Fund and the Public Works Trust Fund, Gay says.

Gowdy says the project will take a year to complete.