Chattanooga reconsiders sewage storage tank plans

Signage surrounds the DuPont Pump Station indicating that no one should get near the overflow area Thursday, June 15, 2017, at the corner of Memphis Drive and Elm Street in Chattanooga, Tenn. The key objectives in the DuPont Pump Station overhaul are to prevent stormwater from getting into the sewage network in the first place and increasing the systemճ capacity.
Signage surrounds the DuPont Pump Station indicating that no one should get near the overflow area Thursday, June 15, 2017, at the corner of Memphis Drive and Elm Street in Chattanooga, Tenn. The key objectives in the DuPont Pump Station overhaul are to prevent stormwater from getting into the sewage network in the first place and increasing the systemճ capacity.

Chattanooga has decided to take a second look at plans for a number of wet-weather sewage storage tanks, which have proved unpopular with residents.

On Monday, Chattanooga's Department of Public Works confirmed new thinking on proposed facilities for Tyner, Lupton City and Bagwell City, which have been affected by recurring sewage overflows caused by heavy rainfall.

In recent months, members of the Fairfax Heights-Bagwell City-Lupton City Neighborhood Association have protested a 7.5-million-gallon tank for Memphis Drive and a 7-million-gallon tank for Lupton Drive. The residents recently learned new plans call for relocating the Memphis Drive tank, which would have been built next to a sewage pump station, across DuPont Parkway, closer to McKamey Animal Shelter.

"We're still working through the technical details, but we are proceeding as though that is the plan," Mike Patrick, director of Public Works' Waste Resources Division, said in a phone interview Monday.

photo Signage and barrels surround the DuPont Pump Station indicating that people should avoid being in close proximity to the overflow station Thursday, June 15, 2017, at the corner of Memphis Drive and Elm Street in Chattanooga, Tenn. The sewage overflow solution calls for the construction of a 7.5 million-gallon wet-weather wastewater storage tank next to the Bagwell City neighborhood.

Public Works Administrator Justin Holland has said the Memphis Drive location made the most efficient use of the $12 million to be spent on the facility. Moving it across DuPont Parkway is expected to increase the price by a few million dollars.

Bagwell City resident Danny Grimmett, who has served as the spokesman for the unhappy residents, said Monday he was thankful.

"It's the right thing for them [the city] to do," Grimmett said. "We just wanted to be heard, and they finally heard us."

The DuPont area residents repeatedly complained the Memphis Drive tank, at 45 feet tall and 210 feet around its base, would drive down property values and make the neighborhood stink all the time.

"Would you want to live next to it?" Grimmett asked at one council meeting.

The Lupton Drive storage tank plan is now up in the air, too, Patrick said.

"It is in flux," he said, "We are looking at other alternatives for it as well."

Last fall, Tyner residents voiced displeasure with plans to build a sewage overflow tank near the Hickory Brook subdivision, in the 2400 block of Hickory Valley Road. Like DuPont area residents, they said they worried about how it looked and how it might smell.

Patrick assured those residents the storage tanks incorporate odor control features used in Chattanooga's other wastewater facilities, adding the overflow tanks would not see service during dry weather, the "highest odor time."

"We are looking for a better-suited property," Patrick said Monday, citing the possibility of placing the Tyner tank near a Lee Highway commercial area.

Contact staff writer Paul Leach at 423-757-6481 or pleach@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @pleach_tfp.

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