Bryson City’s engineering consultant firm has recommended the town build a new wastewater treatment plant next to the town’s existing plant for an estimated price tag of $12.6 million.
Discussion of the proposed plant dominated Monday evening’s work session agenda at the town council meeting.
Engineers from McGill Associates, headquartered in Asheville, recommended the town build the new wastewater treatment plant on land adjacent to the existing plant on Riverview Road on the southside of the Tuckaseegee River and repurpose parts of the old plant.
The recommendation would hinge on the Tennessee Valley Authority selling property adjacent to the plant for the new construction, Nate Bowe, project manager with McGill, said. TVA recently sold a tract to the Town of Fontana Village for a treatment plant, Bowe said.
The engineering firm recommended against building the new plant on part of a 9-acre tract the town owns on the north side of the river near Powell Lumber. Most of the tract is in the 100-year floodplain and would cost more-- about $14.8 million -- to build.
Bowe said the town’s existing plant is worn out and has numerous issues including the widespread use of extension cords, malfunctioning blowers, pumps and other equipment. The existing plant is operating at nearly 88 percent capacity on good days.
“The takeaway is it’s an old facility that is operating at capacity,” Bowe said.
The current plant is permitted by the state at 600,000 gallons a day and the town has frequently exceeded the permitted capacity. The design flow rate at the existing plant is about 651,000 gallons, with peak flow capacity of 1.40 million gallons a day. Peak flows during 2018-19 were more than 2.15 million gallons a day.
Bowe recommended a 1.2-million gallon a day capacity at the new plant with a peak flow or hydraulic capacity of 2.5 million gallons a day.
The town has been cited by the NC Department of Environmental Quality more than two dozen times in the past 10 years for raw sewerage overflows into the river and has been charged thousands of dollars in fines by the state.
The most recent spill was the largest since 2009, according to state records. On Feb. 6-7, when 3-4 inches of rain fell, more than 100,000 gallons of sewerage spilled into the river. It was the largest since 2009 when an overflow of 300,000 gallons was reported.
Bowe said the town is under a suspended moratorium for new sewer taps, but the company will help the town get a Special Order By Consent to continue issuing taps.
“They are holding the moratorium as a threat,” Bowe said.
The town will have to proceed or take proactive steps to prevent re-issuance of the moratorium.
Joel L. Storrow, past president of McGill Associates, said much of the overflow can be attributed to inflow and infiltration into the collection system. In order to get federal help in funding a new plant the town will likely have to address infiltration first.
Storrow, who worked with Robbinsville when the town built a new treatment plant several years ago, said the town was required to reduce infiltration first. Robbinsville’s plant cost about $7.6 million but was smaller capacity than the plant needed by Bryson City.
Storrow said once the inflow problems are addressed, it may turn out that a smaller capacity—and less expensive-- plant may be sufficient.
Town Manager Regina Mathis said the town will address approval of the McGilll study at the next meeting, March 2. The USDA has a March 31 deadline for initial reports.
Greg Passmore, who operates the plant and attended Monday, was commended by the board for his efforts for making the best of a bad situation with the antiquated treatment plant.
Storrow said there are other financial sources beside USDA including Golden LEAF a pool of funds available as part of the tobacco settlement with the state. Storrow said the town may want to go in with Swain County to fund part of the capacity that could be reserved for the county.
Storrow said after the meeting, if the board approves the plan, he would expect securing funding and construction of the plant would take about three years, similar to Robbinsville’s time frame.
The next board meeting will be March 2 at 6 p.m. in town hall.