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TWSA officials approve SOC for North River Road wastewater treatment plant
By Justin Goble
Local water and sewer officials last week (Dec. 13) took a concrete step toward bringing its largest sewer plant in line with state regualtions.
Tuckaseigee Water and Sewer Authority leaders unanimously voted to approve the Special Order of Consent it sent to the state, which will assist the authority in bringing the North River Road wastewater treatment plant into compliance with regulations.
The SOC establishes a timeline for when improvements and expansion to the treatment plan will be completed. Under the agreement passed by TWSA officials, work will be completed in May 2010.
TWSA Director Joe Cline said that the SOC has been submitted to the state officials, who offered no objection to the draft as it was presented. TWSA board members had to approve it before it could take effect.
One concern brought up by TWSA board members was allocation allowed for additional customers. Cline said the state had granted some additional allocation.
“They’ve granted us an extra 250,000 gallons per day,” he said, adding that system improvements would free up more.
Cline also said state officials have agreed to negate half of the fines imposed on the plant.
According to notices from the Environmental Protection Agency, discharges from the aging plant were putting too much bacteria and suspended solids back into the Tuckaseigee River. This violates TWSA’s permit standards, which sets out limits for the plant’s releases.
During the water treatment process, wastewater is brought into clarifiers to filter out the harmful material. Bacteria is grown to destroy much of the organic waste, while the heavier solids must settle out. The EPA limits on how much of these solids and bacteria must be filtered out before the water can return to the river.
In other business Dec. 13:
– Officials voted to suspend the impact fee for the Cashiers Library expansion.
Library officials requested that both the impact and acreage fees for the expansion be suspended because only storage space is being built.
TWSA members agreed that the expansion had no impact on allocation, but decided that it did affect the land and decided to charge the acreage fee.
The board voted 8-0 for the measure. Jackson County Commissioners’ Chairman Brian McMahan abstained from the vote because the county is funding the library expansion.
– TWSA board members unanimously voted to grant employees a $500 Christmas bonus.
During TWSA’s Dec. 6 workshop meeting, the issue of Christmas bonuses was brought up by Sylva representative Bobby Beck, who said he did not see them in the budget. TWSA Chairman Lynda Sossamon said she thought since employees were given raises earlier in the year, they would forego Christmas bonuses. Beck said employees deserved the bonuses, and asked Cline to see if it was possible to find money in the budget to finance them.
Cline said last Tuesday that there was money available for the bonuses.
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