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The city of Choteau is undergoing a million-dollar upgrade to its sewer system as part of an effort to meet the standards set by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality.

According to the DEQ, groundwater is diluting Choteau's sewer system, making the whole system ineffective.

Project representative Brandon Duffey said, "Their problem now is groundwater is leaking into the system. So, once they replace those services they won't leak water anymore."

Choteau's Wastewater System Improvements Project aims to fix that.

Mayor Jay Dunckel said, "We've had a lot of problems with the old sewers. They're probably as old as the city is. So, we started on this about three years ago putting together the package that needed to be done."

The project will add a disinfection facility at the sewer's lagoon site, and will also slip line over 3,000 feet of leaking pipe with new structural pipe liner.

This method will prevent workers from having to tear up city streets and replace the entire main. Dunckel said, "You just put another pipe inside the old one and this is keeping the groundwater from getting into it."

Many sewer service connections will also be replaced, hopefully helping to eliminate the groundwater leakage.

Dunckel noted, "This is something we've needed to do for a long time just because of the deterioration of the old sewer piping."

The project, which is being funded through loans and grants, is expected to wrap up by mid October.