Draft sets June repair deadline
By Chris Mazzolini
The months-long negotiations between Wilmington officials and state
environmental regulators and their plans to fix the Port City's sewer
woes will soon receive a dose of public scrutiny.
The
so-called special order by consent agreement, which is intended to
reduce flows through the troubled Northeast Interceptor, hold the city
to a strict timetable for sewer repairs and lob fines at the city if
those deadlines aren't reached, was signed by City Manager Sterling
Cheatham and sent to the N.C. Division of Water Quality on Friday.
While
a city news release on Friday said the state accepted the agreement,
city officials said Monday the document is not final and the state
could make some changes in the next few days.
The next step for
the agreement is a public comment period, which could include a public
hearing. Susan Massengale, a DWQ spokeswoman, said a hearing is likely
because there is "extensive public interest" in the sewer situation.
The
public hearing is not yet scheduled but has to be advertised at least
30 days in advance. The N.C. Environmental Management Commission then
must make its final decision within 90 days of the hearing.
Meanwhile,
the city is moving forward with repairs. Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo
said the heightened state oversight will ensure residents that city
officials are doing things right.
"It's basically giving a level of comfort to the state and the citizens that we are doing what we say we are doing," Saffo said.
According
to the draft agreement, the city must complete about $5 million worth
of repairs by June 30, 2008, or face daily fines of $1,000. That work
includes relining 2,000 feet of pipe on Greenville Loop Road,
relocating about 7,000 feet of interceptor pipe away from Hewletts
Creek and improving capacity at two pump stations.
City
officials must also provide the state with flow data and compliance
reports on time, or face daily $1,000 fines. And any sewer spill
associated with the interceptor will cost the city $5,000 the first
time, with the fine doubling for each spill.
City officials hope to finish long before the deadline. The city
already has awarded the contracts for the repairs and plans to begin
the bulk of the work in August, finishing in January. That will enable
the state to lift the moratorium on new sewer extensions in the
interceptor area.
"We have made tremendous strides in moving
those time frames up," Saffo said. "We feel very confident we can
finish on time. Everybody wants to try to finish as quickly as
possible, and it seems we are moving ahead of schedule."
Work hazard
But
sewer repair work has its pitfalls, which was illustrated last week
when 13,000 gallons of sewage spilled into Bradley Creek. At the time,
a contractor was working to repair and upgrade the Bradley Creek
outfall, a county-maintained pipe that flows into the interceptor at
the Bradley Creek pump station.
The repairs have been put on
hold by a county-issued stop work order until the contractor, Reynolds
Inliner LLC, presents a plan to ensure that more spills don't occur.
Bill
Kopp, a New Hanover commissioner and chairman of the county's water and
sewer district, said Monday that both he and County Manager Bruce Shell
will sign off on the plan before the contractor will be allowed to
resume work. Kopp said he expects the contractor to present the plan to
county officials Wednesday.
"It's very disheartening to see this
happen," Kopp said. "I can understand maybe it happens once, but when
it happens three times, someone is asleep at the switch."
With
millions of dollars of the city's own sewer work scheduled, Cheatham
said city project managers and engineering consultants should be enough
to make sure there are no spills, but he stressed that accidents can't
be predicted.
"Hopefully, the more eyes we have on the work, the
better the product and the safer the product," he said. "It's worked so
far and hopefully it will continue."
Ongoing work
The
interceptor has been the cause of numerous sewer spills since 2005,
resulting in millions of gallons of sewage entering area waterways.
That has attracted heightened state oversight, including fines and
development restrictions. The Environmental Protection Agency is also
investigating numerous violations of the Clean Water Act.
The
idea of entering into a consent order with the state has been discussed
by environmentalists since Wilmington's recent sewer woes began. City
officials announced their own desire to create a consent order in early
March as they faced increased pressure from state and federal
regulators, plus state legislators who said at the time that Wilmington
was not in "crisis mode" to fix the sewers.
The Wilmington City
Council approved a draft consent order and plan to limit flows through
the troubled interceptor in early April. That plan - specifically
efforts to continue issuing unlimited residential and some commercial
building permits - was rejected by state regulators in early May.
That
plan was amended and became the current policy, which includes
diverting 600,000 gallons away from the interceptor. In addition, the
plan caps new sewer flows at 120,000 gallons each in the interceptor
area and the Northside basin. In the Northside area, that flow is
equally divided between the city and New Hanover County.
As of
Monday, the city had approved projects adding 44,520 gallons of its
60,000 gallons of Northside flow, while the county has permitted 9,710
gallons. In the interceptor area, all of the 60,000-gallon residential
flows and 53,412 gallons of the 60,000-gallon commercial flows have
been used up.
Chris Mazzolini: 343-2223
