City of Libby officials announced plans to conduct a tour of its wastewater facility beginning at 2 p.m., on Thursday, Sept. 23.

Jim Hammons, city admnistrator, said the tour will give the public the opportunity to see how the facility operates now and to explain the challenges and changes the city is facing.

The wastewater treatment plant was constructed in 1985 and treats wastewater generated within the city and discharges into the Kootenai River.

Hammons said the facility operates under a Montana Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit issued by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality. A new permit was recently issued to the city effective September 2009.

According to Hammons, the updated permit requires that Libby’s treatment plant meet an E. coli limit in lieu of a fecal coliform bacteria limit. The current plan utilizes chlorine disinfection to reduce E. coli concentrations prior to discharge into the river.

Allowable chlorine concentrations discharged into the Kootenai River are also restricted by the pollutant discharge elimination system permit. As such, Hammons said Libby’s plant will not be able to meet the E.coli limits in 2012 with the existing treatment processes.

The city has developed an improvement project for the plant in two phases to bring it up to the required standards. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development is funding the project and bids are expected to be advertised in early October.

Hammons said construction would begin next spring.