TWSA to expand Cashiers sewer treatment plant

By Rose Hooper

The permit will allow the treatment plant to process an additional 100,000 gallons of wastewater per day, according to TWSA Executive Director Jerry King. Cost of the project has not been estimated, King said.

Development in the Cashiers service area has been at a standstill since the plant reached its capacity and no new hookups have been allowed.

The existing Cashiers sewer plant was built in 1986, six years before TWSA was formed in 1992.

The expansion will include a sludge pump station, two circular clarifiers, tertiary filters, chlorination/dechlorination facilities, post aeration and control building, said King, who has begun advertising for sealed bids from those interested in doing the work at the Cashiers site.

A pre-bid conference will be held at the Cashiers wastewater treatment plant Tuesday, July 11, at 2 p.m.

Also during their meeting Tuesday, TWSA board members heard from Ed Norton, who presented a petition with 29 signatures from residents in Riverbend Road area between Sylva and Cullowhee. The petition requested the neighborhood receive water and sewer services from the authority.

"Many of us have inadequate or failing sewer systems with no room for expansion," Norton told board members. "The water supply is from wells, which are, in some cases, threatened by the failing sewer systems."

TWSA's sewer line runs down the other side of the river, Norton said, and "we are sandwiched in between."

King said a pump station would be required to accommodate the request.

"With all the permits you would have to get to do that, it would be pretty extensive," he said. "And, as you know, we haven't been able to trench in the Tuckaseigee."

A 6-inch water line at $30 per foot for about half a mile would cost around $78,000, King said. The sewer line and a pump station needed to pump wastewater across the Tuckaseigee River would cost in excess of $100,000, according to King.

"What you are looking at is a $200,000 project," King said.

Board member Bobby Beck said the only way he thought the project would be feasible would be to bring service all the way down N.C. 107 from Ed Norton Road to the Rolling Green community.

TWSA Chairman Mickey Luker told Norton the request would be taken under advisement.

Board members made plans to meet at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 4, to work on the 2002-03 fiscal year budget.

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