The new plant will use an "activated sludge treatment" system, a closed tank into which very small bubbles of air are injected. The air creates the biological environment that treats the waste by digesting the harmful bacteria. Both plants will run in parallel, at least at first, Wood said. The long-range plan is to have the old plant completely replaced. The new plant is the first of three planned phases of expansion that will, eventually, replace the current plant. It will have an average daily capacity of 30 million gallons a day, he said. The old plant, most of which will remain after the first phase is built, has an average capacity of 45 million gallons a day. Wood said the district is going to a meeting of the Utah Water Quality Board in Farmington today to make the initial presentation for a $20 million low-cost loan to help fund the work. Davis received a similar loan, also for $20 million, when it started its work. Wood said the rest of the money will come from a variety of sources, which could include municipal or revenue bonds. What that will do to taxes and fees collected by the district is not known, he said. The district has its own tax levied against property hooked up to the sewer. It also charges cities that it serves a separate user fee, which those cities also pass on to consumers. Finally, he said, the district charges an impact fee for every new hookup to the system. Cowan said the Davis district was able to finance its expansion without raising ei-taxes or fees. A big part of that was the explosive growth in Davis County, he said. "We have never actually seen a downturn in building at this point," Cowan said. "Our actual impact fee revenues will exceed the projected revenues this year." At the same time, he said, just the size of the new system means costs in Davis will have to go up. "We are in the process, just the beginning process, of looking into our user charge system, evaluating costs going forward and what funding we need, if we need to adjust rates," he said.