Nearly two years after the City of Powell proposed building a new stormwater retention basin on the Northwest College campus, the two governmental entities have hammered out a deal to make it happen.

“Finally,” City Councilman Floyd Young said last week, as the council approved the seven-page agreement.

The gradually sloping basin will be constructed in a roughly 1-acre area that sits east of NWC’s multi-sports court and off of 10th Street, stretching across a now-vacant dirt area and into some trees. When completed, the grass-covered basin will look like those near the Homesteader Park softball fields.

The project is intended to help handle runoff from large storms, as the current system gets overwhelmed by water that floods in from that part of town and from developments southwest of the city.

“The reason for the basin is, trying to put a pipe that’s large enough to carry the type of flows that we really need to get out of the city, is difficult,” Travis Conklin of Engineering Associates recently explained to the council. The basin will also take some pressure off the city’s Elk Basin pipe, which carries stormwater to Bitter Creek.

The project also involves the installation of a new 30-inch drainpipe that will start at the intersection of Division and Seventh streets and run north to 10th Street before heading east to the basin.

A new 36-inch pipe will then cross college property to connect the basin to the Elk Basin pipe along Wyo. Highway 295 (Absaroka Street).

The work stands to benefit NWC, too, because the basin will serve as a dumping ground for the college’s stormwater — both now and with future development. For example, three new manholes are being installed on North Division Street for the college’s benefit.

However, the college had some reservations, wanting assurances that the basin would not become a bog and that the city would take on the liability for the basin.

As negotiations dragged on, Conklin was tasked with developing an alternate design that didn’t include the basin. However, going without it would have created a significant “pinch point” in the system and likely required installing a bigger or additional pipe in the future, Conklin said. Further, staying off the college’s property and installing the 36-inch pipe beneath the paved portion of 10th Street would have been “pretty expensive,” he said.

On Aug. 12, Northwest College trustees unanimously gave President Lisa Watson the ability to finalize a “limited purpose easement” for the property. Watson said the unusual measure was needed to ensure the city could start the bid process and encumber federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds for the project before an October deadline.

“The timing on this has gone on for quite awhile,” she said last month. “We’re working with the city to make sure we have a project that will work for everybody.”

Watson described the college’s and city’s lawyers as being on the final stretch of “an agreement we can live with.”

The president said it’s been important to ensure the agreement is clear on what is being agreed to and that there is a benefit to the college.

“The benefit is the ability to offload our water and tie into [the city’s] drainage system,” Watson said, adding, “We have struggled with standing water on our campus. … We’ve tried to look at the glass half-full perspective.”

The final document lays out the arrangement in detail, including saying the basin “shall not present a nuisance bog condition” and can’t hold water for more than 12 days.

Conklin said sampling over the summer irrigation season indicated the bottom of the basin should remain 2 feet above the highest groundwater mark. He described the chance of the basin becoming a bog as “very minimal,” but the city can raise the floor with gravel if necessary.

With funding from ARPA, the city is bearing all the costs associated with the project, including planting grass, trees and shrubs requested by NWC. The college has agreed to water and mow the area once the job is finished.

City officials expressed some consternation with language stating that the city will “fix, repair or compensate NWC for any damages caused by City to NWC people, property or equipment from City’s excavation, construction, installation, maintenance, or operation” of the stormwater system. However, those concerns were eased when the college agreed to add language stating that the city isn’t waiving its governmental immunity.

Because ARPA dollars are being used for the project, the job must be under contract by the end of the year and completed by the end of 2026. However, Thorington said the city’s intent is to have it finished by next July.