The terrible odours wafting through parts of town should hopefully dissipate within the next week or two as the City finishes having the lagoons pumped out.
They originally began the project in the spring, but were forced to stop when the farmers had to start seeding. They waited until after harvest to finish.
"We ran into issues with water coming back in and then rand out of time with seeding," said Peter Bergquist, director of planning and engineering for the City of Humboldt. "Sludge goes into the fields so the farmers wanted to start seeding because they only have a small window."
Since the sludge gets pumped out and spread onto the fields, Bergquist says there has to be a good ratio of sludge and water. When they began, it was too watery, which was making the fields wet and taking too long to dry. As such, it was setting back seeding time. By the time they were forced to stop, they hadn't progressed very far so most of the work is being completed now.
"We waited for everything to be finished and now we have a larger window because crops are off the fields," said Bergquist. "Any issues now are more easily dealt with because we have the time."
Unfortunately, this means some residents will have to contend with foul aromas until the work is done. On the upside, once finished, the lagoons won't have to be pumped for another ten years or so.
