NASHVILLE - Chattanooga officials are primed to move forward with $21.9 million in local sewer upgrades, including a major project that will boost waste capacity for the Volkswagen plant and other companies at Enterprise South industrial park by nearly tenfold.
"That should handle what we anticipate over the next 20 years," said Jerry Stewart, the city's director of waste resources.
He noted it would easily accommodate what city officials believe could be a second plant located at the VW site.
"VW keeps talking about doubling the size, and other industries are moving out there," Stewart noted. "Amazon has moved out there too. ... At some point in time, it's going to have to happen.
"If they [VW] did it today, I'd be in trouble," Stewart said.
The city's plans took wing last week as the Tennessee Local Development Authority approved a $20 million loan for eight Chattanooga projects from the Clean Water State Revolving Fund.
The Enterprise South project will use $6.5 million of that. The city is getting an additional $1.9 million grant from the federal Economic Development Administration.
Blake, a state spokesman, said the city would pay 2 percent interest on the $20 million loan, which is funded by a combination of state and federal dollars.
Elsewhere in town, the city will begin work on a $4.2 million "odor control project" at the Moccasin Bend Sewage Treatment plant.
Stewart noted it is an issue given the plant's location inside the Moccasin Bend National Archaeological District and nearness to ongoing Northshore development.
Other sewer and pumping station upgrades include areas of Pineville Road ($1 million), Altamont ($2 million), South Chickamauga Creek area ($1.5 million) and Citico Creek ($2.5 million).
The work at Enterprise South calls for upgrading the pumping station, installing a force main sewer line and a portion of a water intercept system. Most of the projects, which city officials hope to put out for bid shortly, will take a year.
Work on Enterprise South will take about 18 months, according to preliminary estimates.
In an environmental assessment, the state says the Enterprise South's pumping station's current capacity is 430,000 gallons per day. Future needs call for 2.5 million gallons. And if Volkswagen adds a second plant -- the company has talked about a second plant at the site -- the flow rate would approach 3 million gallons.
So the pumping station and collection system needs to be upgraded to 4 million gallons to serve current and future needs, the state report said.
The VW plant, with about 2,000 employees, uses a portion of the 1,340 acres on which the factory sits. While the existing facility was built to produce 150,000 cars a year. VW officials also have said they could build a plant mirroring the existing one and double capacity to 500,000 vehicles annually.
VW's premium subsidiary, Audi, has indicated it, too, will build cars in North America, and automotive analysts said Chattanooga has a chance at the plant.
In August, J.Ed. Marston, the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce's vice president of marketing, said the city has worked to position itself for possible VW expansion.