Sewage-treatment master plan topic of Friday meeting
Another work session on the development of a master plan for possible regionalization of sewage-treatment services in the Norris-Andersonville area will be held this coming Friday (July 26) at the Clinton Utility Board offices in Clinton.
Participants are expected to narrow a list of choices on how to proceed, Norris officials told the city’s Water Commission during last week’s monthly meeting.
Participating in the session will be representatives from Norris, CUB, the Anderson County Water Authority, and the engineering firm Cannon & Cannon, which has been contracted to conduct a study commissioned by the city of Norris.
Norris City Manager Adam Ledford told the Norris Water Commission last month that no decisions had yet been made, but he and Norris Mayor Chris Mitchell gave the commission – which has the same members of the full City Council – a report on a previous meeting they had with the same parties, as well as with Anderson County Mayor Terry Frank.
The city initiated the project last year by applying for and receiving, in November, a $3.37 million state “water infrastructure” grant to pay for the study on regionalization.
An agreement among all of the parties could result in creation of a regional wastewater treatment system that would be operated by Norris, but serve city customers and some residences, businesses and industries outside the city limits who are now connected to CUB or ACWA sewer lines in the northeast Anderson County area.
Although the study is looking at several options, it was conceived by Norris as a way to help control sewage-treatment costs through “economies of scale,” by expanding the city’s customer base beyond the city limits.
Mitchell told the water commission during the June meeting that he wasn’t interested in creating a new public entity to take over the sewer system. “It’s our study,” he said. “I’m against establishing a new governing body.”
Bringing in regional partners and extending service to customers outside the Norris city limits could help Norris pay for a new sewage treatment plant to replace its aging facility just off East Norris Road, which would cost millions of dollars.
As for the current study, using the Knoxville engineering firm Cannon & Cannon, Norris is paying a match of $177,500, for a total project cost of about $3.55 million.
“The proposed project will study the benefit of diverting a portion of ACWA sewer flows from CUB to Norris, allowing Norris to increase revenue to offset capital costs associated with [its Wastewater Treatment Plant] improvements,” according to a letter from the Anderson County Water Authority to the Tennessee Department of Environment & Conservation’s Division of Water Resources in the application for the grant, which was sent to the state last August.
“The study will also look at growth potential to appropriately size the Norris [Wastewater Treatment Plant] improvements for the future as part of long-term regionalization efforts,” the letter said.
Norris is currently under a TDEC director’s order to make millions of dollars in upgrades and improvements to its wastewater treatment system, which also could eventually require construction of a new treatment plant.
But because Norris now has only about 600 sewer customers, it is looking for ways to expand the wastewater system’s customer base to help keep sewer rates down.
The ACWA sewer lines in the Andersonville area now route their flow of collected wastewater to a CUB treatment plant miles away
With this proposed change, however, the sewage would be treated at the much-closer Norris plant instead.
“Re-routing ACWA’s flows to the Norris plant will also remove a portion of wastewater flows that enter the ACWA system and ultimately the CUB plant, which will in turn help provide additional capacity in the interim of a CUB long-term plant expansion,” the ACWA letter said.
“ACWA stands to also benefit by reducing the distance it is required to pump its wastewater, providing energy savings and extending equipment lifespans.”
The application summary submitted to the state notes that:
“This [application] proposes a ‘Wastewater Regionalization Master Plan’ in eastern Anderson County, with the goal of … treatment plant expansion to provide mutual benefit to three utility systems in the area [Norris, ACWA and CUB].”
All required matching funds for the grant have been guaranteed by Norris, the application noted.