Water Commission approves sewer rate increase
Norris customers to see full $20 hike by September 2026
Norris plans to raise sewer rates to help pay for sewer-system improvements and updates mandated by Tennessee environmental officials. The first project in the plan got underway in this area along East Norris Road in mid-July, and is causing some temporary road closures, as shown here on Friday, Aug. 15.. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
Even so, the plan won’t take effect until the City Council approves it in an ordinance, which will need to be passed on two readings, with a public hearing in between.
The ordinance is likely to move forward almost automatically, as the five-member Water Commission is composed of the same five members as the City Council.
It would likely be on the agenda for the Oct. 11 regular council meeting, City Manager Adam Ledford told the commissioners.
The new charge will be listed separately on utility bills as for “required sewer upgrades.”
It will cost residents $240 a year extra when fully implemented.
Residents would see the first $5 increase on their Dec. 1 utility bills, followed by an additional $5 every three months through Sept. 1, 2026.
That would raise the base sewer rate from the current $55.01 a month for the first 2,000 gallons to $60.01 on Dec. 1, $65.01 on March 1, $70.01 on June 1, and $75.01 on Sept. 1.
Usage in excess of 2,000 gallons a month would continue to be billed at $9.44 per 1,000 gallons for the next 7,000 gallons, then $12.48 per 1,000 gallons beyond the first 9,000 gallons.
Sewer charges are added to the water bill, which is now $26.96 a month for the first 2,000 gallons. Norris residents also pay a $15 trash-collection fee and a $3 stormwater fee added to each month’s utility bill.
Altogether, residents who have water and sewer service already pay a monthly minimum utility bill of $102.60. Individual bills vary for households that exceed the 2,000-gallon minimum each month.
Norris has about 700 water customers, but only about 570 also have sewer service, and only those would be charged the higher sewer rates.
During its July 21 meeting, the Water Commission directed city staff to bring a proposal to its next meeting for raising the sewer rates to help the city qualify for low-interest State Revolving Fund loans to help pay for part of its sewer-system upgrades, which are already under way.
A contractor on July 14 began the first of a planned series of projects that will eventually cost in excess of $5.48 million for the sewer work, which has been mandated by Tennessee environmental regulators.
While the city has received some grants to cover part of the work, the SRF loans will have to provide the rest of the money, Ledford said.
Hurst Excavating LLC. of Knoxville received an $851,455 contract from the city for the first phase of the sewer-line upgrades, mostly along East Norris Road.
The project includes replacing older sewer lines to help reduce the influx of stormwater runoff that overwhelms the city’s sewage-treatment plant following significant rainfall.
That contract, approved April 14 by the council, covers about 25% of the sanitary-sewer system, Ledford said earlier.
“These are the areas most in need of repair or replacement to reduce load levels at the sewer plant,” he said.
The work is causing some traffic disruptions, mainly on East Norris Road, as the lines are uncovered.
In conjunction with that, the council voted June 9 to award a bid for repaving a section of East Norris Road from the Commons to Pine Road. Ledford said the city already has money in the budget to cover that portion, but also plans to extend the work from Pine Road to Cedar Place, near Andersonville Highway, when money is available for that.
As for the sewer project, excess runoff of stormwater into the city’s sewer system has caused the city to run afoul of state environmental regulations.
Since early 2022, Norris has been under a “director’s order” from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation to clean up its discharge of sewage into Buffalo Creek, just south of the sewer plant, which is on the west side of East Norris Road just north of Andersonville Highway.
The department found the city in violation of water-quality regulations concerning those discharges bypassing the sewage-treatment plant.
Last year, the city also set up a new Stormwater Department under control of the city manager, with the goal of creating a better system of managing stormwater runoff than what the city now has, which includes some stormwater collection lines mostly along city streets.
The problem is that during periods of heavy rain, stormwater infiltrates the city’s sanitary sewer system, causing an unmanageable flow to the city’s sewer plant.
There, the excess stormwater mixes with raw sewage, and because it can quickly overwhelm the treatment facility, this combination of sewage and stormwater ends up bypassing the treatment plant, and gets dumped into nearby Buffalo Creek.
The city in early 2022 hired Cannon & Cannon Consulting Engineers of Knoxville to create a plan to remedy the violations. That plan, submitted to the council in May 2022, called for making the required sewer-system repairs beginning as soon as possible, with an estimated completion date of late 2028.
Under the engineers’ plan, the price for the bulk of the work was estimated to be $5.48 million, with a potential bill as high as $6.6 million.
That does not include the possibility the city might need to install a 750,000-gallon holding tank for stormwater runoff, at an additional cost of more than $2.1 million.
The city also will be required to update its sewage-treatment plant. Norris is hoping to get help from other nearby utility systems to pay for the new sewer plant.
