West Fargo’s Spring Stench From Lagoons Will Be Gone… In About 10 Years

The city will hook up a switchpipe to the city of Fargo at the end of the summer

WEST FARGO, N.D. — If you get just the right wind to hit your nostrils, that’s when you’ll know spring has sprung in West Fargo.

“A swamp, kind of like a field of cows,” said Danell Phelps, owner of Ladybug Latte, near the lagoons.

Every year, the lagoons trap gases like hydrogen sulfide under the ice. So when they get released in the spring, they release a stench that will be sure to stay in your head long after you first get a whiff.

“I had no idea what was going on. I had no idea that the lagoons were so close to here and I thought there was something dead in the field behind us. So I was just looking around like what in the world is that smell,” Phelps said.

But just as the seasons come and go, the smell eventually will too.

West Fargo has had ten lagoons since the city was established. But within the next decade, they will all be decommissioned.

Once West Fargo connects a switch pipe to the City of Fargo at the end of the summer, the waste will be taken away from the lagoons. The stench will eventually fade away over the years, creating a remedy for nearly 600–acres of contaminated land.

“It’s just kind of like oh, West Fargo springtime. West Fargo stinks,” Phelps said. “It’s very unpleasant so it’ll be very exciting when it’s all gone. We don’t have to worry about it every spring.”

But clean air won’t come for free.

“It is a double–edged sword. I think they’d be excited that we don’t get this annual ritual we’re getting here, the smell every spring. But everything comes at a cost,” said Chris Brungardt, director of Public Works in West Fargo. “So your sewer rates will be increasing and because Fargo’s going to charge us to treat the sewage.”

West Fargo Public Works has not determined how much more people will pay for sewage on their water bill.

However, Fargo will be charging the city $3.00 per one–thousand gallons that’s treated.