A public sewage system should be complete come December for residents in the Lanark area, officials say.

The state Department of Environmental Protection, through the Clean Water State Revolving Fund, is funding $6.9 million for the North Beckley Public Service District to extend its service to about 300 new customers along W.Va. 41 in Lanark.

DEP spokesman Tom Aluise said the goal of the project is to enhance the water quality for those in and around Beckley.

“Everybody deserves clean water,” he said. “One goal is to ensure everybody has that, and sewage systems are so important. It’s good for the future in the community.”

The fund, which began in the late 1980s, was started as a funding source for projects to clean and protect the nation’s water, Aluise said. Every state is supported by the funds.

Federal stimulus money provided $2.4 million for the project and state revolving funds through municipal bonds provided $4.5 million.

The total project cost is $7.1 million; the PSD provided $133,000 and Raleigh County $70,000.

Donna Sawyers, general manger for North Beckley, said the Lanark project is just the next phase of extending its services.

“We have been doing extensions and picking up the area as we come along,” she said. “We just finished a project which extended sewage services to the Stanaford Road area.”

Lack of funding has meant that areas in and around Beckley have been without sewage systems, relying solely on septic tanks, officials say. As the area continues to develop and grow, services such as public sewage systems are eventually put into place once the proper funding is provided.

Sawyers said this process takes time.

“When you put in a sewage system, you’re naturally going to service the immediate area,” she said. “Then as you have growth in the outlying area and money becomes available that funds them, we then do extensions to pick up customers.”

She added officials would like to see everybody with a public sewage system because of the health hazards associated with septic systems.

If kept in a proper location and maintained properly, septic systems do not pose any problems, said Kathy Emery, a managing engineer with the DEP.

But if a septic system isn’t maintained and is in a location that is crammed — often the case, she says — and on bad soil, then there can be issues.

Sawyers said this project is important not only to everyone in Beckley, but to Raleigh County and people in general.

“Any time you don’t have a public sewage and failing septic systems, sewage eventually ends up in our streams and affects our water quality,” she said.

— E-mail:cjackson@register-herald.com