By Derek Spellman

dspellman@joplinglobe.com

SENECA, Mo. — The city of Seneca has enlisted the help of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe in trying to secure funding for a new sewer-treatment operation, an official said.

Seneca Mayor Gary Roark said he and members of the tribe will go before an Oklahoma board that oversees water quality in June to pursue funding for a new plant that could cost more than $5.5 million.

The city was cited by the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality in January for violations at the wastewater lagoon the city shares with the tribe. The lagoon is on the Oklahoma side of the border.

Although that violation has been addressed, Roark said the city’s aging system still poses two problems.

First, the city’s system is already at capacity, leaving little room for any growth. Second, state and federal standards continue to rise as regulators seek to reduce the amount of discharge in waterways.

Roark said Seneca’s system will struggle to keep pace with those changing standards.

“We are meeting the requirements now, we just won’t be able to do so in the future,” Roark said.

Seneca voters in April 2005 passed a $1.6 million bond proposal for projects to the existing wastewater and water systems, but Roark said city coffers could not afford even half of the cost for the $5.5 million system, much less the full amount.

Seneca has struggled to obtain state funding in the past partly because its boundaries straddle both Oklahoma and Missouri.

But Roark said the support of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe should enhance its prospects with either state, particularly Oklahoma.

Chief Glenna J. Wallace of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe said the tribe is supporting the city’s bid to obtain outside funding. Wallace said members of the tribe accompanied Roark when he went before the state board earlier this year.

“Ours would be a supporting role and (we will) be as helpful as we can,” she said.