Sylva deals with more failing septic systems

By Rose Hooper

Jackson County Department of Public Health officials cited a property owner there when sewage flowed on the ground. The flow was temporarily controlled by pumping the septic tank and hooking the home to the nearest manhole with a 4-inch line.

That failure, in addition to nine other failing systems at homes between Skyland Drive and Hospital Road, prompted the health department to request Sylva expand the scope of its Moody Bottom sewer project.

Sylva Town Board members agreed last Thursday (May 1) to pay Cavanaugh and Associates $19,200 to develop a gravity sanitary sewer plan for the Scotts Creek Road extension, which is expected to require approximately 1,200 feet of sewer line. That extension could add an estimated $85,000 to the $534,000 committed to the current project to extend sewer lines to property annexed in 1996, according to town Manager Richard McHargue.

Jason Robinson, on-site project inspector for Cavanaugh and Associates, told town board members May 1 that the Art Altman property on Allens Branch had been hooked to new lines that same day.

Robinson reported that crews had run into "bad soil" on Allens Branch Road that was unsuitable to be used as compacting backfill. When Robinson said replacement soil, at an additional cost of $12,000, had to be hauled in, board member Eldridge Painter suggested the firm investigate free dirt available along N.C. 107.

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