CLEVELAND, Tenn. — Cleveland Utilities wants to know what the cost will be to bring a broken sewerage system at a mobile home park up to standards that the city can accept.
The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation has demanded that the owner fix the privately owned, leaking pump station at Peachtree Pointe on Michigan Avenue Road at his own expense.
“That is a private sewer collection system and a private sewer lift station,” Craig Mullinax, Water Division manager for Cleveland Utilities, told CU board members Thursday.
The Peachtree Pointe system is leaking into a tributary, according to TDEC, which leaves nearby Wilkerson Branch polluted with E. coli from mostly human waste.
Mr. Mullinax said owner Jerry Jacobson of Dana Point, Calif., has given CU permission to evaluate both the collection system and the station.
“Our largest concern is the condition of the station and what cost it would take to bring that up to our standards,” Mr. Mullinax said. “The way we are proceeding is to try to bring it up to our standards so we can take it over.”
Utility officials met Thursday with two contractors to consider the cost. The results will be reported to the owner.
“We don’t have to take it over in a substandard condition,” said Tom Wheeler, Cleveland Utilities general manager.
TDEC issued its first notice of violation over the unlicensed, leaking system in 2006. Mr. Jacobson didn’t respond, county leaders have been told.
Local residents have complained to the Bradley County Commission but county leaders have maintained that it’s a state issue.
Earlier this month, TDEC notified Mr. Jacobson that he had to bring the system up to city standards and turn it over to Cleveland Utilities.
“After we take it over, what does he do?” board member Eddie Cartwright asked. “How do we get reimbursed?”
The park residents will pay a sewer bill, Mr. Wheeler said.
Peachtree Pointe would be the third private system brought up to standards and accepted by Cleveland Utilities, Mr. Mullinax said.