Communities consider centralized wastewater treatment facility

CARDWELL, Mo. -- City officials from the four neighboring communities of Cardwell, Arbyrd, Senath and Hornersville met here with representatives from Waters Engineering firm of Sikeston, Mo., representatives from USDA/Rural Development, as well as the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, to discuss the idea of a centralized wastewater treatment facility for the four communities.

Richard Cochran with Waters Engineering presented the idea to officials during a roundtable discussion held at the Cardwell city hall Monday night.

Although a few communities weren't sure how the proposal could benefit their community, others were certain it was in their best interest.

Cochran had a map that illustrated each community's wastewater treatment site, all of which processed and then filter wastewater into nearby streams or rivers.

Cochran said that, although he was presenting only a proposal, officials needed to be aware of the changing advanced treatment limits which would set most out of guidelines with their current lagoons.

Gary Gaines with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources addressed the crowd, which was eager to learn why the proposal was initiated to begin with.

"Most of your lagoons are on a schedule of compliance right now," Gaines said. "So with the newer stricter regulations, I do not believe that any of you would be able to pass according to the more stringent standards and regulations of the Missouri Coalition for the Environment," he added.

What appeared to be the most popular concern of local officials was how the centralization could benefit their community, opposed to how hey could benefit from going at it alone.

Cochran said, after reviewing the dollar amount for each community's upgrade and comparing it to if it was divided between four communities, that he sees each city saving 40 percent.

"Right now each of the four cities discharges into four separate waterways," Cochran said. "The idea would be to examine the waterways and pick the one which has the least stringent limits for the facility to discharge in to."

According to reports from the Department of Natural Resources, with the new stringent limits, the agency will soon be requiring more disinfectants for streams, which will be costly to the small communities.

"The Missouri Department of Natural Resources encourages regionalization," Gaines said. "Centralization is more economically efficient, as well as more cost effective for smaller towns, since all four communities will be pulling from one source."

Concerns stemmed from a few officials who questioned efficiency, considering the fact that a bigger, more powerful system would require more energy as well as larger pumps and equipment, in addition to around the clock attendance.

The main concern seemed to be the cost. Everyone wanted to know a dollar amount. What is it going to cost?

Although the concern of cost was at the top of the list of concerns from local officials, representatives were more or less needing to know which communities were interested in the idea before any further investigations could be conducted.

"It wouldn't make much sense to conduct a survey which included all four communities and only two want to centralize in the end," Cochran said.

"But without a survey to give us more of an idea to what it is we are looking at, it would be wrong of us to jump in and say, 'Yes, we want this,' without knowing the impact it's going to have on our community," Hornersville mayor Richard Mara said.

Another concern stemmed from Senath mayor Bill Anderson. "I don't see where it would make much difference," Anderson said. "No pun intended, but it was just in 1992 when we were told we had to have a new lagoon and now we are being told that the lagoon will not pass the stringent requirements set by DNR, just a few years back," he said. "So I feel that no matter what we do, the rules can change and we're just going to have to accept it and deal with it the best way we can," he added.

Anderson said he is worried as to how his city can come into a project like this when they are still paying on the last one.

"Will USDA/Rural Development come and repossess the lagoon, once we are required to go to a treatment facility?" Anderson asked of Phyllis Minner, with USDA/RD.

With everyone laughing, including herself, Minner responded by saying, "No," and that may be something that several of the communities will be faced with when the time comes for converting.

According to regulations, however, communities like Hornersville will never be eligible for grants or government money, due to the fact that their water and sewer rates have remained below standard requirements that agencies require cities to have in order to be eligible to receive any grant money.

"Right now, I can say that there is no way that the city of Hornersville would receive grant funding due to the fact their water rates have not been raised properly," Minner said.

The cities of Hornersville, Senath, and Arbyrd are currently on the schedule of compliance, which puts them in greater need of change, compared to that of Cardwell, who is up in 2009.

"But right now, you are not meeting your limit here in the city of Cardwell," Gaines said. "So the reality is all of you are going to be required to go to a more advanced system."

Gaines said that, although the cities are not being forced to into anything just yet, change is due according to the new regulations and compliances."

Although Monday's meeting was just a proposal, officials decided to take the idea back to their local councils in order for their boards to review, and also to give each town's residents a chance to discuss the proposal.

A few dates were tossed around after Mitzi Dell, grant writer for all four cities, confirmed a date in which all cities would have conducted its council meeting.

After further discussion, all agreed to wait until representatives from Waters Engineering sends a letter with more in depth information, detailing a more adequate dollar amount with a breakdown of how much each city will be out, and more importantly, how much each city will save in the long run.