Wastewater, Red Bank officials seek deal on fee

The Hamilton County Water and Wastewater Treatment Authority is delaying an $8 monthly fee for 24,000 gravity sewer customers so authority members can work out a compromise with angry Red Bank officials.

“The delay certainly doesn’t mean we’re not going to do it,” said Henry Hoss, the treatment authority’s chairman.

The authority’s board this week voted to delay implementation of the fee, which would affect Red Bank, Signal Mountain, Lookout Mountain and East Ridge, until its next meeting.

The $8 monthly fee, which the authority’s board approved May 7, will go toward inspection and repair of leaky pipes that connect homes to main sewer lines. The work is necessary to deal with excess water — especially during heavy rains — getting into the sewer system and overwhelming it, Mr. Hoss said.

Red Bank officials have argued that the fee is unfair to them, since city residents pay about twice as much for water treatment than those in other municipalities. They pay $8.71 a month, while others pay $4.36.

“We’re paying our penalty already,” Red Bank Mayor Joe Glasscock said.

The new $8 fee, which will last for 20 years, will go on top of the fees already in place.

Several county commissioners have said the deal appears to be unfair for Red Bank.

But Mr. Hoss said the extra cost to Red Bank pays off debt for $15 million to $16 million in similar repairs that the city made in the 1990s, prior to joining the treatment authority.

He also said Red Bank has “a serious problem” with the type of runoff that causes problems for the sewer system.

Still, Mr. Glasscock said he thinks the fee should only apply to Signal Mountain. Last month, state regulators ordered the authority to deal with problems at the Signal Mountain sewage treatment plant.

But the state and the city of Chattanooga suggested that improvements be made systemwide, Mr. Hoss said, so Red Bank would have to participate.

If inspections find customer’s lines to be problem-free, adjustments to the fees could be made, Mr. Hoss said. But he estimated about half the lines in question will need repair.

Ansley Moses, the member of the authority’s board from Lookout Mountain, said he hoped a compromise with Red Bank could happen.

“I don’t know how it’s going to get resolved,” he said. “It’s up in the air.”

He said the authority might have been better off to brief each municipality before passing the fee plan. Still, the authority cannot simply assume Red Bank’s debt, he said.

“We can’t just forgive the debt service,” he said.