Hanceville Sewer treatment plant upgrade finishes ahead of schedule

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Plant operator Wade Sims stands atop the headworks of Hanceville’s upgraded waste water treatment facility. Nearly two years in the making, the $4 million project wrapped construction earlier this year and recently began functioning at full capacity. BENJAMIN BULLARD

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July 10, 2012

Hanceville Sewer treatment plant upgrade finishes ahead of schedule

Officials seek end to state moratorium on new tie-ons

By Benjamin Bullard The Cullman Times The Cullman Times Tue Jul 10, 2012, 11:00 AM CDT

HANCEVILLE — It’s taken 18 months, $4 million and some thick skin for board members, employees and city officials, but Hanceville has thrown the final switch in its rollout of a bigger, modernized and, at last, fully-functioning waste water treatment plant.

The bond-financed project, which broke ground in December of 2010, came in slightly under budget and a year ahead of a state-mandated deadline, giving the city’s water and sewer board an opportunity to avoid crippling fines for environmental violations that, for a time, seemed inevitable.

Officials with the water board, as well as water department manager Nathan Finley and Hanceville Mayor Kenneth Nail, will travel to Montgomery today to meet with representatives from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) in the hope of convincing regulators to lift a two-year-old moratorium on new sewer tie-ons.

Armed with data comparing the new plant’s efficient handling of heavy sewage volumes with the messy performance of its overburdened predecessor, they’re optimistic about their chances.

“When the violations come through on the discharge that the plant has put out, it affects the whole system,” said Finley.

“If we can do away with that, it makes a big difference. In past heavy-rain events, it could lead to eight or twelve sanitary sewer overflow [violations] per rain event, but we’ve had only one since most of the upgraded plant came online in January of this year. I’ve never been in a position of having to see how the state deals with things like this, but I would hope that what we’ve done will make a difference.”

Nail said the ban has slowed new construction in the city to a mere trickle, with only a few projects green-lit through state variances, last-minute city permits that barely beat the moratorium’s effective date, or reliance on septic systems since the mandate went into effect in early 2010.

“Oh, there’s no doubt that the moratorium has stifled a lot of the growth we could be having,” said Nail.

“It’s been frustrating, but I think we’re seeing light at the end of the tunnel. We’ve been sitting here watching what might have been the last few years, and the economy’s been bad, and we’ve been under this moratorium. But I think that, with our sewer fixed and the economy picking up, we’re sitting on a gold mine — I really do.”

Although the new plant was built so that its capacity can be expanded if the need arises, it can currently treat as much as 1.5 million gallons of waste water a day — nearly three times as much as the old facility.

Hanceville’s water and sewer board entered into a 30-year, $5.4 million bond to fund the plant’s overhaul, as well as several upgrades to the city’s sewer line infrastructure, in April of 2010. Plant manager Wade Sims said the new facility has a design life cycle of at least 20 years, although it could perform well beyond that period if the city’s growth — and the additional sewage load it will bring — is gradual and well-managed.

* Benjamin Bullard can be reached by e-mail at bbullard@cullmantimes.com or by telephone at 734-2131 ext. 270.

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Hanceville Sewer treatment plant upgrade finishes ahead of schedule

Officials seek end to state moratorium on new tie-ons

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