Dawson can't meet sewage deadline: mayor

Dawson City will not be able to meet the court-ordered deadline to develop anew system to treat its sewage, its mayor says.

The community of 1,800dumps itsscreened sewage into the Yukon River, but it has been ordered to build a secondary treatment system by the end of 2008.

Mayor John Steins toldterritorial court Friday theproposed treatment lagoonsstill need to be engineered. After that, it could take another two years to get the necessary environmental approvals.

"If it were up to me, we would have a backhoe out there digging tomorrow," Steins said. "But it's literally impossible to say we'll have it done by such and such and commit to that, knowing full well there are other elements that influence the date."

Special federal prosecutor John Cliffe said there are still have questions about the proposedsystem.

"The judge is quite well aware of the history here of false promises and false starts," Cliffe said.

Judge to stay on to case's end

"If he's not satisfied, at the next court appearance, then he will have to decide the next variance order and decide what kind of penalties to impose with respect to missed target dates."

Althoughjudge HeinoLilles said he is not prepared to extend the deadline by two years, as requested by Dawson, he did say he will impose stiff penalties if he detects any more foot-dragging.

Lilles retired this fall, but he said he will return to hear the case through until the end.

The case will return tocourt next summer.