TEN SLEEP – The Town of Ten Sleep will introduce a new wastewater ordinance at the council’s monthly meeting on Monday night, in an effort to accommodate industrial business within town limits, specifically the Ten Sleep Brewing Company.

“Our attorney is writing it up now,” said Mayor Jack Haggerty on Friday. “It will set rates for industrial-sized entities and hopefully better define the requirements of the lagoon, and cover requirements for new sewer taps for businesses and residents.”

Established just outside of Ten Sleep in 2013, the Ten Sleep Brewing Company, looking toward rapid expansion, is considering a move inside the town limits of Ten Sleep, which would require a change to current wastewater considerations for the town, while at the same time bring needed revenue.

In November, representatives for the brewery met with the Town Council to discuss the possibility, and review the state’s concerns regarding where the brewery would dispose of thousands of gallons of wastewater during the brewing process.

“We’ve never had industrial production inside Ten Sleep before, so without a water treatment facility we would really have to look at the specs before we could be sure the town could handle that sort of thing,” said Ten Sleep Mayor Jack Haggerty. “We currently run a four-baffle system [at the town lagoon] and treat the released water with ultraviolet light before discharge.”

Justin Smith, with Ten Sleep Brewing, agrees that the limitations to the town’s lagoon need to be evaluated.

“At this point we need to understand what the lagoon can handle. There’s a certain biological oxygen demand, and the state and EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] guidelines dictate a certain percentage of how much can be released,” said Smith. “At our current location we are running lower than the permitted amount, and bottom line, the brewery wants to be a good neighbor.”

Smith points out that the excess yeast and biological matter produced could be caught during the brewing process, and either taken to the landfill, or used for agriculture production.

“We would love to do it,” noted Mayor Haggerty, “but the brewery would have to build toward not discharging more than we can handle.”

Also on Monday, the council will discuss town-wide recycling, and receive a report from Nowoodstock promoter Pat O’Brien.

The meeting will be held at town hall at 7 p.m. All meetings are open to the public.