THE STORY SO FAR
In June 2007 state regulators placed a moratorium on Signal Mountain sewer hookups until the system’s regular overflows to the Tennessee River can be stopped. The move, effectively halting all but small development, is slowing growth on the mountain despite the opening of a new high school there.
WATER & WASTEWATER TREATMENT AUTHORITY
Created — 1993
Mission — Provide reliable, low-cost sewer service within service area to promote economic development, eliminate health problems and protect the environment
Countywide customers — About 25,762 residences and businesses in the following areas:
* Soddy-Daisy — 1,159
* Red Bank — 5,281
* East Ridge — 10,918
* Ridgeside — 158
* Lakesite — 77
* Signal Mountain — 1,169
* Lookout Mountain — 840
* Walden — 35
* Unincorporated area — 5,585
* Georgia — 540
Source: Hamilton County WWTA
Utility officials say they are working to repair the aging Signal Mountain sewer system so it can connect to the Moccasin Bend Sewage Treatment Plant by mid-2009.
But regulators say a sewer hookup moratorium will stay in place until the connection is complete.
“The moratorium is still in place and will remain in place until Signal Mountain is connected to the Moccasin Bend Wastewater Treatment Plant,” said Meg Lockhart, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, which placed the town under the moratorium in June 2007 after repeated efforts to get the city to comply with its water pollution permit.
The 2007 moratorium effectively halts all but small development and is slowing growth on the mountain despite high demand for homes there after the opening of a new high school, officials said.
Signal Mountain’s sewage treatment plant, built in 1971 and expanded in 1988, cannot handle the sewage that flows through it during storms, and the overflows run to the Tennessee River. An $8 countywide fee to pay for the system’s repair and connection to Moccasin Bend recently began showing up on customers’ bills from the Hamilton County Water and Wastewater Treatment Authority.
But Cleveland Grimes, manager of the WWTA, which took over the operation of Signal Mountain sewers and the treatment plant in 2003, said the authority hopes state officials will ease the moratorium before that.
“There’s a difference between fixing the system and lifting the moratorium,” he said, explaining that authority officials hope TDEC will lift the hold on sewer hookups once officials there are reassured that programs are in place to reduce leaks and there is an agreement with Moccasin Bend for a connection.
“We are hoping by the middle of next year to have the programs in place to get that agreement,” Mr. Grimes said. He said the connection would take at least another 18 months.
With many residential and street gutters running into the largely antiquated sewerage lines, officials have said that as much as 1 1/2 inches of rain can cause sewage and stormwater runoff to mechanically bypass the treatment plant and run into the Tennessee River.
TDEC officials have said the plant, which is permitted to handle 400,000 gallons of sewage a day, has such bypasses about 50 days a year.
Mr. Grimes said leaky private and public sewer lines must be fixed before the Signal system can be tied to the larger system.
Work to fix the sewer lines on the mountain is continuing, he said Tuesday, but the fixes are not quick ones.
“It takes time,” Mr. Grimes said of the inspection and repair process.
Signal Mountain town manager Honna Rogers said she expects to talk with Mr. Grimes this week for a complete update of the treatment authority’s effort, but she said the moratorium has not stopped growth on the mountain, which with a new high school continues to attract many families looking to buy new homes.
“We have a subdivision proposed now for Shackleford Ridge Road with 27 lots, all to be built with septic tanks,” she said, noting that not even the fizzling real estate market has slowed interest in mountain homes.
Among more than 3,000 homes within the town limits of Signal Mountain, about a third are connected to the sewer system, officials said. The rest are on septic tanks, something environmental and county officials had hoped to change with the creation of the WWTA in 1993.
The wastewater treatment authority is charged with extending sewer lines throughout the county to eliminate pollution from septic tanks and antiquated sewer lines.
Authority officials said they had spent $2.9 million on Signal Mountain sewer fixes between 2003 and the time the 2007 moratorium was set in place.
Since that time, WWTA officials said, the utility has spent about $3.1 million to extend a sewer line to the new mountain high school and another $1 million on the most recent repair work.
The utility also faces state fines for pollution problems and sewage repair delays, but payment of the fines is on hold pending an appeal by the authority, according to TDEC’s Ms. Lockhart.
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Signal Mountain's realtors and developers couldn't care less if we were all walking around ankle-deep in sewage. They have never, do not and never will accept logical density/lot size requirements to keep the mountaintop community from being developed into oblivion. The area is already WAY past its carrying capacity and is a show place for abject failure to adopt principles of environmentally sensitive community planning.
The press is equally to blame - notice the phrase in this story that decries the fact that efforts to keep Signal Mountain from turning the Tennessee River into even more of an open sewer 50 times a year is "slowing growth" on the mountain. Why not a phrase saying that "decades of careless overdevelopment on Signal Mountain have created an ongoing public health hazard and forced a halt to development in an effort to rectify past mistakes." Now THAT wouild be real reporting.
A proposal for 27 more new homes on septic tanks in the Shackleford Ridge area, likely on lots of less than a third of an acre and at the head of watersheds of two major feeder streams shows there is still no meaningful commitment to protecting community health when only a third of the existing homes in the community are on sewers at all.
Speaking as a peasant on the valley floor, it is unbelievable a community as wealthy and "forward thinking" as Signal Mountain allows their raw sewage to dump into the beautiful Tennessee River watershed. On second thought, maybe it isn't so unbelievable.
They STILL allow storm runoff to enter the sewage system and cause it to overflow into the River? What century do they live in up there? Are they antebellum? Clean up your act [literally]. We do NOT want your filth down here.
First step to be taken by the State Health Dept [by whatever name] is to immediately close all mechanical overflow dumping into the River.
Second, let the system back up into THEIR homes, schools, and businesses...the problem will be fixed day after tomorrow. Trust me on that.
Third, allow new sewer hookups and septic systems ONLY if expansion/repairs are financed UP FRONT by the developers and/or buyers of new homes. Make it part of the building permit cost. That goes for expanded/improved water and power system costs as well. Let the new residents pay for new construction, NOT the existing residents.
Note for Signal Mount residents -- Forcing developers to foot the new construction/repair costs does two things; it gets the system fixed and -- most importantly -- those costs are passed to the new buyers which very, very effectively raises the resale value of your house.
This works, has worked, and will continue to work all over the country in upscale housing areas, poor economy or no.
Is the head of the WWTA, Agent OOSS, going to use his secret OO ink to erase the bills to fix the sewers, so no one can see where the public money goes. Agent OOSS is a master of concealing public records.