Stimulus funds could help wastewater plant upgrade
Federal stimulus money might take the edge off a multimillion-dollar upgrade to Lexington and Rockbridge County’s wastewater treatment plant – but plant officials aren’t holding their breath.
The Lexington-Rockbridge Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant needs an upgrade to meet new state standards governing wastewater nutrients. Half the cost of the $15 million improvement construction, which could begin as early as April, will be covered by a state grant.
But while the state is offering a zero-percent-interest loan to Lexington and Rockbridge County to cover the other $7.5 million, the localities have applied for $15 million in federal stimulus money in hopes that that would pay at least some of the cost.
"This would kind of be the icing on the cake,” said Joe Milo, executive director of the Maury Service Authority, which oversees the plant. “We’ve got our fingers crossed, but I have very low expectations we could get any [stimulus money.]”
Although the wastewater plant began operation only 10 years ago, improvements are necessary under new state requirements that call for a reduction in the amount of phosphorus and nitrogen in the treated wastewater by the end of 2010.
The proposed upgrade would install sand filters to help remove those chemicals, plus two new digesters, machines that help separate sludge from liquid wastewater for further treatment. The upgrade would also create a new sludge-thickening facility, which will chemically treat sludge for use as fertilizer on local farmland.
The service authority, a state entity that operates under the Virginia Water and Sewers Authorities Act, serves Lexington, Buena Vista, Glasgow and the county. It contracts with Lexington to hire employees through the city to work at the wastewater plant. Lexington and Rockbridge County have two members on the MSA board. Buena Vista has one representative.
The MSA ensures that the wastewater plant meets the standards set for agencies in and around the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The authority owns both the wastewater plant and the Maury Service Authority Water Treatment Plant, which treats drinking water from the Maury River. Member municipalities purchase their drinking water and sewage-treatment services from the authority.
Lexington City Manager Jon Ellestad and the MSA first submitted a proposal for state and federal funding for the wastewater plant upgrade four years ago, when the state changed its treatment regulations.
“We have to treat the sewage to a higher level than we had been,” Ellestad said, referring to the new regulations.
But the wastewater plant isn’t their only concern. In addition to the wastewater plant upgrade, the city and the authority have applied for stimulus money for the replacement of two old water distribution lines in the region.
Neither Ellestad nor Milo thinks the stimulus applications will be approved.
Both said that with the abundance of applications for stimulus money already made throughout the state, Lexington and Rockbridge stand little chance to receive funding for the wastewater facility. But they see nothing to lose in applying.
The city and the MSA are prepared to accept a loan from the state should their stimulus applications not pan out.
Rick Allen, director of Lexington’s Utilities Processing Department, which operates both the water and wastewater plants, says construction will begin this spring –with or without federal stimulus money.
“We really can’t do any better, unless they [the government] relieve us of some of that debt,” Allen said. “[We] have to be prepared to pay the whole amount if the economy gets worse.”
Allen says the wastewater plant cost about $16 million to build 10 years ago. He says that while newer requirements in Maryland and Virginia are meant to help restore the Chesapeake to a more pristine condition, they might not be doing enough to address its problems. Allen said he thinks unfettered farming continues to threaten the health of the Chesapeake Bay.
“Everybody loves a farmer, but it’s hard to regulate them,” Allen said.
He says that about 80 percent of pollution in the Chesapeake Bay watershed comes from storm water and agricultural runoff, things that the state departments of health and environmental quality have yet to rigidly regulate.
“They haven’t really improved the quality, they’ve just kind of held it where it was,” Allen said.
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See where the treatment center needs retrofitting. |
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