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Show In-Depth Study of Grand County Sewage Facilities Due in April An in-depth report on all of Grand County's present sewage sew-age treatment facilities, a statement of what additional facilities will be needed in the ' next twenty years, and a cost estimate for all such improve-ments improve-ments will be made public in April. This report is part of the Facilities Phase of the X "208"Waste Water Quality Management Planning Program Pro-gram being administered in J the Grand, Emery, and Carbon area by the Southeastern Utah Association of Governments. Program manager of the study is Dr. Courtney H. Brewer, with the SEUAOG. Directing the Facilities stu-dy stu-dy is Craig Johansen of Johansen and Turtle Engineer- .; ) ing in Castle Dale, who said in ; a recent interview that while the Program's recommendations recommenda-tions for Emery County are complete, only the preliminaries preliminar-ies for Grand and Carbon Counties are now available. His firm is still awaiting future population estimates before proceeding with the recommendations recom-mendations for these area, ; Johansen said. An obstacle facing the "208" Office is how to fund sewer improvements. "Infor- mation compiled has been presented to the Legislature for possible funding," Johan sen said, but he criticized lawmakers for giving too little consideration to the impact that energy development will have on the area. While Grand County does not have the energy impact that Carbon and Emery have, they will still feel the results of the spin-off. For example, the residents of Carbon and Emery Counties will bear the brunt of developmenht costs if other modes of funding are not forthcoming. "The coal companies responsible for the increased population are being subsidized by area residents who are paying inflated taxes and water and sewer charges," char-ges," Johansen stated. With the possibility of the opening up of the mines in the northern part of Grand County, as well as the drilling that is going on and the oil shale possibility, the residents of Grand County will also bear the brunt of development costs if other modes of funding are not forthcoming. These coal companies, com-panies, the oil shale companies, compan-ies, etc., responsible for the increased population will also be subsidized by area residents resi-dents who will pay inflated taxes and water and sewer charges. According to Dr. Brewer, all recommendations from the "208" Program's various departments must be completed complet-ed by July 1977, when the Office will close its doors. Federal Government guidelines guide-lines say all the nation's waters must be "fishable and swimmable by 1983," thereby imposing the deadline on the completion of all the improvements improve-ments recommended by the Water Quality Program. Dr. Brewer went on to say that a Technical Committee Meeting was recently held in the offices in Price. Mayor Wm. D. McDougald was present from the Moab area, and he indicated that he felt much help can be had from such a study as far as Grand County and Moab City residents resi-dents are concerned and as. far as the various industries are concerned. It should be noted also that Commissioner D. L. Taylor and Councilman Harold Jacobs are members of the Southeastern Utah Association of Governments Executive Board. |