Sewage treatment crucial to industry

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    Future capacity concerns officials

Jim Miller has a vision of the economic development of Calhoun County, a vision not unlike that of most people in the area, only his involves waste-water treatment.

In his world of critical infrastructure, if you don’t have a way to treat your water, you are looking at not only slowing growth, you are looking at a moratorium on it.

That’s why the general manager of the Anniston Water Works is so concerned right now.

The engines of economic growth in our area, including the jewel that is the McClellan property and the Eastern parkway that will connect it to Interstate 20, is set to go nowhere if the messy problem of water treatment is not solved soon.

“We just don’t have the capacity right now to deal with much more growth in that area,” Miller said. “We could probably handle one large industrial recruit at McClellan, but much more than that and we’re past our capacity. If we get above that, we’ll actually be looking at a moratorium.”

And it’s not only McClellan that Miller and others are concerned about. It is the communities of Lenlock, Weaver and Saks — the commercial areas along the Eastern and Western Parkways, including Pelham Range, as well as the continued expansion of the Anniston Army Depot.

Miller says it is one big, inter-connected problem, with one expensive solution: a new 5 million-gallon-capacity sewage treatment plant, that, if ever built, will be called Cane Creek.

“We have to have that plant,” Miller said. “Those things cost about $50 million these days, so it won’t be easy to get the funding, but we have to get it.”

Miller sees a number of pieces to this puzzle coming together in the coming months. A critical one is already under way at the Anniston Army Depot.

Congressman Mike Rogers helped secure $28 million in funding in 2008 for a pre-treatment plant at the depot. Construction is underway on that facility.

This plant would allow waste water from the depot to be sent directly to the new Cane Creek facility once it’s built. Because of the industrial waste in the depot’s water, Miller explained, it has to be treated before it can go into any off-site treatment plant. This clears that hurdle.

As for Rogers, he has been engaged in this process for several years now. It is, he says, the key to the development of the region.

“This is important for the community,” he said from his office in Washington. “McClellan can be the economic engine for the whole region, but, if we want to land a big fish out there, we better fix our utility needs now.”

He went on to say how important a new plant would be for development along the U.S. 431 corridor, the surrounding communities and the depot.

He stressed, however, that to see the project through, the local community needs to show leadership and “buy-in” to the project.

“I want the community to start coming up with a plan,” Rogers said. “The local leadership needs to start focusing on this.”

Rogers said he’s also concerned about connecting sewage to the communities of Lenlock, Weaver and Saks, not only for economic development reasons, but also for public health reasons. Nearly all residences, businesses and public buildings in these communities have septic tanks.

“Most of the soil around there doesn’t perk,” Miller said. “It needs to be addressed because it is beginning to be a public health concern.”

Perk is an industry term that means the soil is not of the proper quality to be conducive to septic tanks.

Weaver Mayor Garry Bearden says one reason there is no commercial development in his city is that there’s no city sewage.

“There is no question that getting sewer lines in here would be a benefit to our future development,” Bearden said.

High on everyone’s agenda, of course, is developing the McClellan property. The Water Works can handle about 2.2 million gallons of water for treatment a day from McClellan, Miller said. It is processing about 1 million.

One big industry, say an auto maker or a large manufacturer, could push the system beyond capacity.

“Fortunately we have a little cushion; we can handle modest growth for a short while,” he said. “But we need to address this as soon as we can. What happens if we suddenly have a few prospects that want to locate here? Then we would have a problem.”

Everyone seems to agree, then, that a new wastewater treatment plant is important for the future of the county and the region. They also agree that finding the funding is not going to be easy.

Miller says the Water Works could put up between $10 million and $15 million toward his estimate of $50 million, “possibly a little bit more.”

“Anything beyond that would just put too much pressure on our customers,” he said. “We would simply have to raise rates too high.”

The consensus, then, is that this is going to have to be a joint effort with the state and the federal government. The state, he says, is strapped for funds at the moment and stimulus funding for such projects has already been spoken for by smaller water systems.

In the end, however, the effort is almost certainly going to involve substantial federal funds.

“I think our delegation in Washington is gong to be fully engaged in this” Miller said. “They all know the importance of it. You might want to call it pork, but in this case, it isn’t pork at all, especially if it’s our barbecue.”

Business as Usual is a Monday column by John Fleming, The Star’s editor at large. Send suggestions for topics to johnfleming2005@bellsouth.net.