First permit approved for new wastewater plant

By BRAD KELLAR
Herald-Banner Staff

GREENVILLE December 01, 2008 01:03 am

— About one year ago, the Greenville City Council approved the sale of $20 million in bonds to pay for an upgraded wastewater treatment plant.
Little has been discussed about the project since the sale in December 2007, although the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) recently issued a “preliminary decision” concerning the city’s application for a permit.
Director of Public Works Massoud Ebrahim noted, however, that it was just the first of what could be many steps in getting the plant off the ground.
“It is the technical review that has been completed, and it is just a draft of the permit,” Ebrahim said.
In other words, the permit itself has not yet been considered by the state agency.
“The next stage might be the approval of the permit,” Ebrahim said.
The TCEQ announced its decision on Nov. 6, and a copy of the announcement was included in the Nov. 25 edition of the Herald-Banner.
The Wastewater Reclamation Center at 100 Division Street, just east of Interstate 30, is in need of a complete upgrade in order to comply with the requirements of the city’s wastewater discharge permit and to meet projected growth.
Plans have called for the expansion from the current treatment capacity of 4.23 million gallons per day (annual average) to 6 million gallons per day (annual average).
The plant was built in 1953, expanded 10 years later and received its last upgrade in 1980. The processing equipment is more than 25 years old and city officials are hoping to completely replace the existing equipment with a more modern system.
The plant had recorded almost two dozen violations from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and/or the TCEQ between 2000 and the end of last year. While the plant is still below its current hydraulic design limit of 4.23 million gallons a day, the amounts of pollutant being loaded into the plant are always at or near the plant’s capacity to handle.
In a worst case scenario, should the situation continue, the EPA or TCEQ or both could not only levy hefty fines, but could order that no new homes or businesses be built or expanded until such time as the plant is able to handle the added load. And it is a load that is expected to increase.
The City of Greenville, now at 26,000 people, is predicted to be a city with a population of almost 42,000 in about two decades. There is also the need to prepare for the potential arrival of the Cobisa plant in the next few years.
The City of Greenville applied for and was approved for a $20 million bond through the Texas Water Development Board. Although obtaining the bond greatly added to the city’s water and sewer system debt, little impact was expected on water and sewer rates right away, as the city will be allowed to pay just the interest on the bonds until such time as the plant is completed, around 2011, shortly before a significant amount of existing debt is paid off.
Currently though, the exact cost of the project is unknown, as the specifications are still being developed.
“We haven’t submitted any plans for the plant to the TCEQ,” Ebrahim said. “We are at the preliminary design stage now.”
Much of the design will also hinge on exactly what the TCEQ tells the city it will need in terms of meeting the regulations it sets in the eventual permit.
“I’m hoping within the next two or three months, they will issue the permit,” Ebrahim said. “In the second or third quarter of 2009, we might be ready to advertise the project.”