WWTA work begins May 24 in Carriage HillThe Hamilton County Water and Wastewater Treatment Authority answered questions last Thursday concerning its Private Service Lateral Program, which will reduce stormwater entering sewer lines through deteriorated clay lines and improper stormwater drainage connections, both of which contribute to unlawful bypasses from the sewage treatment plant into the Tennessee River during heavy rains.WWTA Executive Director Cleveland Grimes explained that the sewer mains in the town have already been repaired. The next step is to repair the lines on private property that connect to the mains. Approximately 1,000 homes in the town on gravity sewers will be affected.Chief engineer Mark Harrison described the timetable and what residents can expect in their neighborhoods. He said the first phase of the program will begin May 24 in Carriage Hill. Homeowners will receive 48-hours notice from plumbers before work begins. A plumber will not come without personal notification.Almost all work will be completed outside the home. Cleanouts will be located and/or installed. Lines will be evaluated through smoke testing or video. Then necessary repairs and replacements will be made and final tests will begin to ensure the quality of the work. The WWTA will replant or replace any yard material that is injured or displaced.By fall, the WWTA intends to have replaced or repaired all 33 miles of sewer line in the town. The work will be guaranteed for 10 years.For problems or questions, contact the WWTA here.
As Hamilton County Water and Wastewater Treatment Authority dives into the second round of its sewer pilot study, the town of Signal Mountain is wading through a study to determine the feasibility of building additional sewers.
“It’s just one step to look at where we could even put lines, what it’s going to cost,” Town Manager Honna Rogers explained. “We can’t really talk about it until we know a rough estimate – are we talking $2 million, $4 million, $8 million? What is it going to cost to spread sewers?”
The contract for such preliminary engineering was unanimously approved by the Town Council May 10. The project is not to exceed $42,000 and will be performed by CTI Engineering, which is WWTA-approved. Based on findings, the firm will be able to recommend an implementation plan.
“It’s not a quick plan,” Rogers said, “like we’re going to put in sewers in a year. There will be plenty of citizen input and all that. But we don’t want to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars if it’s not feasible.”
Hidden Brook and the Palisades are the areas of study for the plan. Rogers said this covers the large majority of land within the town limits not already on sewer. She added that these areas are geographically close to existing sewer, most likely making connections easier. They are also the areas bordering Short Creek, Bee Branch and Shoal Creek, Signal Mountain’s three streams listed on the 303[d] list, which is the state’s identification of contaminated waterways.
“It’s going to be beneficial for the town to get more people on sewer than septic because of the type of ground up here,” Rogers said, adding that a direct correlation between septic systems and water quality was found in studies by the town’s independent Clean Streams Task Force.
Although affected homeowners will be required to cover a large portion of the costs of additional sewers, Rogers said there may be a possibility of the town financing the project and recouping the cost through property or utility tax increases, thus allowing residents to spread the cost out instead of being responsible for it up front.
“The first question everybody asks is how much is this going to cost (to build sewers)?” said CTI President Paul Cate. “We can’t do that until we get further into the technicalities. This is kind of like the preliminary design. After that, we’ll get into surveying, which side of the street do we need to go to miss all the utilities.”
Cate noted an additional pump station will be required on Middle Creek because of the topography. The study will determine if a higher than normal capacity pump is needed, but he said that has been the case in Hamilton County only once: at Chester Frost to pump material across the lake to Chattanooga sewers.
Moratorium mends can flow now that easements procured
With the easements needed to connect Signal Mountain to Chattanooga’s sewer system now in hand, the sewer moratorium is one step closer to ending.
Hamilton County Water and Wastewater Treatment Authority needed the easements from Baylor School, Signal Mountain Cement Company and several other property owners to build a force main in the area. The treatment facility the town of Signal Mountain currently uses on Suck Creek Road will become a station to merely pump the wastewater over to join the city of Chattanooga’s, part of the conditions of the moratorium.
“There’s no set timelines for us yet (on the conversion/construction),” said WWTA Executive Director Cleveland Grimes. “We just haven’t finished the designs. The design on the force main and the easement acquisition are complete. The designs at the pump station are probably 90 percent complete.”
Funding for the rest of the project is not in hand yet, according to Grimes. Construction itself will take approximately two years from the time the bids are accepted, he said.
Service will not be affected during that time.
“It’s not like water; you can’t really turn sewers off like that,” he said. “Usually you end up bypassing around. Everything stays operational while you’re doing sewers.”
The new station and main will be capable of handling the towns of Signal Mountain and Walden as well as their growth boundaries in addition to the nearby unincorporated parts of Hamilton County, Grimes said.