By Kathryn Reed

If Douglas County Sewer Improvement District has an emergency in the future, it now has a plan to deal with it that should prevent effluent from reaching Lake Tahoe.

The South Tahoe Public Utility District board on Jan. 19 approved an interconnection system and mutual aid-assistance agreement with DCSID. STPUD had agreed to the interconnect in concept in April 2014. Last week’s vote made it official.

“They will pay five times our average treatment cost for every gallon they send us,” Shannon Cotulla, STPUD assistant general manager, told the board. “We would make the decision if we would accept the flow.”

The interconnect will be a gravity fed 1,200-foot line that is 15-inches wide. The project will start in about 500 feet west of Lake Parkway in Stateline on Edgewood Companies property and tie in with a manhole on Stateline Avenue in South Lake Tahoe.

Under dry, normal conditions capacity at the Bijou pump station would not be an issue. If it’s during storm conditions, South Tahoe PUD might not be able to help.

Before this is a done deal, the environmental process has to take place. STPUD has issued a negative declaration, with comments being taken until Feb. 20. The draft negative declaration will be before the STPUD board on March 2.

Douglas ships its treated wastewater from Stateline to ag land in the Carson Valley. Federal law mandates all wastewater be treated and shipped out of the Lake Tahoe Basin.