KINGSTON — The Kingston-Cataldo Sewer District was recently awarded a $1.4 million loan from the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality. 

The low-interest wastewater construction loan is scheduled to be used during the second phase of KCSD’s new wastewater treatment facility project.  

Construction is scheduled to begin this spring and be completed by next summer. The facility will be built on a 130-acre property between Kelly and French gulches. The property was purchased after the district was awarded $6.2 million for the plant in 2023.  

“The district has signed a loan agreement with IDEQ to supplement the existing grants to fund the entire project,” the KCSD board’s statement reads. “However, no funds have been withdrawn to date, and repayment will only be required on funds that are withdrawn. The district is actively seeking other means of funding to avoid drawing on the loan if possible.” 

Having the loan in their back pocket will allow the KCSD some flexibility to begin the project while continuing to seek additional funds to keep the cost of the project low for its roughly 1,000 customers.  

KCSD Manager Jon Groth met with the Shoshone County commissioners last year to discuss the district’s plans for the new plant and how it would differ from what they’ve been doing.  

“The wastewater collected in Cataldo and Kingston, which currently goes to the South Fork Sewer District for treatment, will be collected and treated right there in Kingston,” Groth said. “The method is going to be to pump everything up to a piece of property the district acquired. Those flows of wastewater will be collected in a pond year-round, treated to where they’re the equivalent of pond water, and then at certain times of the year we’ll use that water to irrigate that property.”    

Groth said the annual cost to operate the new treatment system is anticipated to be less than what the district is paying the South Fork Sewer District, while also relieving the SFSD’s recently upgraded systems and the amount of water being discharged into the South Fork Coeur d’Alene River by 15 million gallons annually.  

The KCSD will hold a meeting in the coming months to update the public on the project.