Sludge removal to begin soon

By RANDALL ALLEN

Horizon Reporter

CELINA-During a special called meeting last week, City of Celina aldermen took an important first step towards fixing deficiencies at the sewage treatment plant here when they approved a purchase of equipment needed begin sludge removal from the facility’s lagoons.

City attorney William Birdwell explained the situation the city currently faces.

“The City of Celina has been working with TDEC for several years regarding deficiencies in the processing of sewage at the wastewater treatment plant,” Birdwell said.  “In October of last year, the City of Celina received a letter, a plaintiff out of Alabama, that a lawsuit would be brought if the deficiencies weren’t corrected, pursuant to a federal law.

“We were open to a lawsuit by a third party, which was filed in December of last year,” Birdwell continued.  “The City of Celina filed an answer to that federal lawsuit and in the process of the first six months of the year, TDEC and the City of Celina entered (into) what is referred to as a consent order.

“In the consent order, it outlined steps that must be taken by the City of Celina over a prescribed time period, with deadlines and penalties—monetary penalties if those deadlines are not met.”

Birdwell then explained the city faced a key deadline date of August 30 to begin one of the processes.

“It is referred to as sludge removal,” Birdwell said.  “This resolution refers to a two step process of removing sludge from the lagoons and depositing that sludge into these specialized bags that allows it to dry without losing it (the solid materials).”

He explained that the public bids “were not compatible and may not be complete by the deadline at the time.”

The resolution up for consideration involved the city taking over the process of the sludge removal and included the purchase of some specialized bags.

Mayor Luke Collins told the board the resolution would be for the city to “do the project ourselves,” and for the approval of these specialized sludge bags.  He explained the city would then look to be repaid for the work and materials through ARP grant money.

Sewer plant operator Jason Hamilton told alderman the sludge didn’t allow the plant to operate properly.  He estimated 12,000 tons would have to be removed from the lagoons.

Alderman Michael Boles made a motion to approve a declaration of emergency, agreeing to fix the sewer plant projects internally, and seeking reimbursement from ARP grant funds.

The motion also authorized the mayor to purchase specialized sludge bags for the sewer plant cleanup. 

Alderman Tracy Mills seconded the motion and it passed 3-0.

City aldermen also discussed two options for the purchase of a fire truck.

Collins said the city could outright purchase the fire truck, but explained it would take a large amount of money out of the city’s general fund.

He said the other option is for the city to finance the fire truck with an estimated payment of $5,000 a month for five years.

Alderman Kenny Westmoreland made a motion to proceed with financing the fire truck purchase.  Mills seconded the motion and it passed 3-0.

Other business

In other business, auditor John Poole spoke to aldermen about preliminary numbers regarding the city’s general and water funds.

The auditor informed the board that accounting depreciation costs of approximately $616,000 were going to affect the waterworks fund.

“This is not good news,” Poole said.  “You can’t lose money two years in a row.

“The state will say you are a financially distressed system, you have to do a rate study… and just to cut to the chase, those actions are 99% of the time an increase on (water) rates.  It is a state law.”

See a future HORIZON for more on the topic of water rates and a potential rate study, as they are set to be discussed at a future meeting.