Although it appears the wheels of progress toward a permanent solution in determining how the Hamilton County Water and Wastewater Treatment Authority (WWTA) will handle the future of sewage in the fast-growing northeastern sector of the county appear to be grinding excessively slowly, at least they're grinding.
That's one way to look at what Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger called a "reset" on the issue at a community meeting at Central High School on Thursday night.
Right or wrong, the vote by the Hamilton County Commission in December to not allow a new sewage treatment plant at 7800 Mahan Gap Road kicked the can down the road on a solution to nasty spills and overflows. The treatment authority had deemed the Mahan Gap site as the best available geographically and the one that would cause the least to build.
Since then, rumors have mentioned that a series of storage tanks and pump stations might need to be built in the short term.
But Coppinger's "reset" appeared more geared toward a new site, which he said WWTA was open to and even wanted a resident committee to help pick.
"Starting tonight," he said, "we want to work together. We have to do a much better job with communication. We are committed to that."
By communication, Coppinger meant that homeowners in the area felt left out of the planning process the first time around.
While many eventually had objections to a variety of things about a potential new plant, they also felt the site had been selected without their input and that the county and WWTA had advanced toward finalizing the plant without sharing the information with them.
Coppinger also reiterated what the county commission knew full well when it took its vote - that any other site will be more expensive.
Whether any pump stations and storage tanks would need to be built in the short term is unclear, but a new sewage treatment plant will take upwards of five years to plan and finish.
We don't know what charge the resident committee will have, but we hope in addition to looking at alternative sites for a new sewage treatment plant the committee also could look into other entities being responsible for wastewater treatment in the area.
In other words, would it be feasible to enlarge the infrastructure to allow more sewage in the northeast part of the county to flow to Chattanooga's not-at-capacity Moccasin Bend treatment facility? Should Tennessee-American Water Company's interest in the WWTA be mined? Should other non-city-owned facilities be given an opportunity to buy the WWTA?
The resident committee, obviously, cannot speak for the WWTA or the county, but we hope it can at least discuss possible options or voice whether it believes the county ought to pursue such options.