Complaints are pouring in from all sides about Hamilton County Water and Wastewater Treatment Authority’s private service lateral program.
“We’ve got to make some decisions here shortly about which direction we want to take,” said WWTA board chairman Phil Smartt, who has instructed WWTA Executive Director Cleveland Grimes to check with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation about ending the program.
A TDEC representative will likely be present at the board’s next meeting Feb. 16.
TDEC initiated a sewer moratorium on Signal Mountain due to excess wastewater entering the system through outdated sewer lines in disrepair. WWTA enacted the PSL program in the county’s unincorporated areas and the cities of East Ridge, Lakesite, Lookout Mountain, Red Bank, Ridgeside, Signal Mountain and Soddy-Daisy. If compliance is not met, Red Bank and East Ridge face moratoriums as well and the county would incur a penalty fee.
“When you deal with TDEC and the EPA, they don’t give you choices,” Grimes said. “Our goal is to stay ahead of the EPA and TDEC coming in and telling us what to do.”
WWTA’s goal is to visit 300 homes per month in order to correct the infiltration problems within seven to eight years. While not all the homes will require repairs, they do require testing to prove they are in compliance.
Hamilton County Commissioner Joe Graham is calling for an end to the program. He was joined in blasting WWTA and its methods by several other commissioners, but the county commission has no jurisdiction over WWTA.
“The homeowner should be responsible for bringing [their sewer] up to par before we take over,” Graham said. “It’s a great idea but who pays for that? Hamilton County taxpayers. If your roof is broken the county is not going to pay to have it fixed. We should be inspecting lines, not putting them in.”
Commissioner Larry Henry worried aloud about rate increases and the flood of calls he and others said they have gotten about the condition of property after repairs and the way which plumbers in the program say they are treated.
“I’ve got major issues with this,” he said. “I would guarantee everybody on this county commission is going to start getting calls about it. Y’all are really going to have to walk soft with this and try to set up a line [of communication] with these plumbers.”
WWTA chief engineer Mark Harrison said his office has been fielding calls from homeowners who are being double-charged by some plumbers for repairs covered by the monthly $8 PSLP fee they already pay.
“These plumbers are, in my opinion, robbing people,” he said. “It saves money in our program but it’s not fair to the homeowner who pays that twice. What I’m trying to save is the hassle of people paying the $8 fee and then a few thousand dollars of plumbing work on top of that.”
He estimates that at least 90 percent of WWTA customers’ sewer repairs are covered in full under the program. However, those who use non-approved WWTA plumbers are responsible for all repair charges.
The $8 PSLP fee WWTA customers pay in conjunction with their water bill was enacted in 2009 for a period of 20 years to cover the estimated cost of permanent repairs. The average sewer repair to fix infiltration problems costs $3,000 to $5,000, according to WWTA officials.
County Finance Administrator and WWTA board member Louis Wright said WWTA will have no choice but to raise its rates in the future. Had a $20 to $22 monthly fee been enacted as was originally suggested, the program would have been paid for without borrowing money, he said. Due to public outcry and the resultant $8 fee, he said WWTA faces more in interest charges than the $15 million it would pay in principal on each of three 30-year loans.
WWTA-approved plumber Gene Shipley said plumbers in the program are getting “80’s wages, 90’s wages” and are not getting paid in a timely manner, which is affecting WWTA’s repair schedule. There are 16 plumbers in the program, down from the original 27, and approximately 24,000 WWTA customers. Only WWTA-approved plumbers are supposed to work on sewers under WWTA’s supervision.
“Mr. Grimes has taken literally tens of thousands of dollars of my work and given it to other people,” said Chattanooga Roto Rooter’s Bill Foxworth. “He stole my customers and Mr. [Mike] Keith’s [owner of Keith Plumbing] customers and everybody else’s customers we worked many, many years for. My company spends about $350,000 per year in advertising.”