Lagoon Deodorant

FORT RECOVERY - Odor stemming from the village wastewater treatment lagoons has improved, village council members learned at Monday night's regular meeting.

Village administrator Randy Diller said the village has continued its regiment of dosing the lagoons twice per week with KCD-X, an odor reducer.

Diller said the odor reducer seems to have helped abate the odor, with a very light smell occurring on some days and no smell at all on other days.

The village continues to apply the odor reducer twice a week in addition to injecting direct oxygen into the lagoons, injecting calcium chloride at the Cooper Farms Liquid Egg Processing (LEP) facility, adding hydrogen peroxide to incoming wastewater from lagoon one and two, adding a recycle pump to the effluent in pond two to dilute incoming water from pond one and six additional aerators.

Diller has said part of the odor issue likely stems from sanitizing chemicals used by Cooper LEP, whose water is treated at the village's wastewater treatment plant.

The village is still awaiting the results of a wastewater treatment system study from Poggemeyer Design Group (PDG), Bowling Green, Diller said. However, there are plans to meet with PDG next week to review the final report, recommendations and cost estimates.

Diller has said village officials can make a long-term plan once the results of the report are in.

In April, officials from PDG and Keith Uccello of Hawkins Water Treatment Group, Muncie, Ind., had said the odor problem is largely due to a nutrient loading issue.

Nutrient loading is an overabundance of nutrients in water. Hawkins Water Treatment Group works with the processing side of Cooper LEP, Uccello had said.

Bill Knapke of Cooper Farms was at the meeting to address any concerns residents affected by the smell may have, but Diller said there were no other guests present at the meeting.

Some Wabash Road residents have attended previous meetings to ask councilors what is causing the stench and what is being done about it.

At the last board meeting, some residents pressed Diller and council member Cliff Wendel, who is employed as the egg division process manger at Cooper Farms, if they believed the smell would persist without the LEP facility. Both said the smell is likely due to sludge buildup over the years and some sort of dredging would be beneficial.

Diller had said Cooper LEP sends domestic-level nutrient loading to the lagoons at this point, which he said the lagoons should be able to handle.

In other business, bids for the Milligan Street project will be opened at 10 a.m. June 29, Diller said.

The final engineer's estimate for the project is $99,766, and is slated for Sept. 1-Nov. 15 to miss the active park season, Diller wrote in his report to council.

The project will include saw-cutting curbs, removing the concrete street and likely undercutting the street and putting down asphalt, Diller had said.

Additionally, a scoping meeting for a multi-use trail project is set for July 6, Diller said.

The village has been awarded a $1.3 million in Ohio Department of Transportation safety grants for the purpose of a multi-use trail along State Route 49 and Sharpsburg Road. It is the first time the village has received the grant.

Diller had said the trail will connect Wigg Street to Sweet Breeze Drive and also will travel down State Route 49 to Commerce Street. The trail will be between 6-8 feet wide and could be used to access the industrial park and the school.

The grant covers 90% of the total cost of the project, Diller had said, adding the village will have to provide a match. The exact amount will be known once officials confirm the grant funding amount.

The funding will not arrive until ODOT's 2025 fiscal year, which Diller had said starts in July 2024.

Council meets next for a special meeting at 7 p.m. June 30 at the village hall to consider bids for approval, approve legislation and discuss the 2023 budget.