PF anticipates need for $40M sewage plant

City officials deliberate on their options casey@theheraldnewspapers.com Consulting engineers for the City of Pigeon Forge reiterated their recommendation that city officials move forward towards a solution to increase their capacity to treat wastewater. A month ago, at a previous workshop meeting with Pigeon Forge, Kenny Diehl said that the city would need to begin the process of building a new wastewater treatment plant in the next fiscal year. He told members of the city’s board of commissioners that the estimated cost of building such a facility would be around $40 million. The city’s current plant, which has the capacity to handle four million gallons-per-day, according to Diehl, is already experiencing days when it is operating at 97 percent capacity. The group met with Diehl once again on Tuesday this week. “As I reported to you on a couple of occasions, the extension of the wastewater plant remains an issue that needs to be addressed as soon as possible,” he said, adding that “it is an expensive project no matter what alternative the city chooses.” Expensive indeed, the process is also a long one: “It could be as much as 36 months from the time you get going on the design of that plant until the time you turn the faucet on,” said Diehl. The easiest option, to simply expand the current facility, is unfeasible because the state will not allow the city to increase its wastewater output to the Little Pigeon River. The only other permanent solutions are to pump the treated sewage some 12 miles to the French Broad River, or build a new treatment facility closer to the French Broad. Also, there are issues with the age of the current plant, as Diehl pointed out. “The city is going to have to spend some money, and not unsubstantial amounts, just keeping up what you’ve got. At some point it just doesn’t make any sense to keep throwing good money at the bad, so to speak, in terms of repairing and replacing a plant that’s 30-years-old,” he said. To proceed with a new plant, the city would need to find land, buy the land, build the facility and permit the facility. “You never know what you’re going to run in to when you go to look for a treatment plant site that might delay the project,” said Public Works Director Mark Miller. A new plant discharging to the French Broad River would, however, be cheaper to operate, according to Diehl: “The discharge limits at the French Broad are not as stringent as the ones you have here,” he said. “Therefore you would not have to build as intricate of a treatment plant as you have now.” City Manager Earlene Teaster said that she and others have been in talks with Gatlinburg officials who are seeing similar capacity issues. Also discussed at the Tuesday meeting were further communications with Gatlinburg regarding a collaborative effort and cost-sharing agreement for moving their sewage to the French Broad. “The expansion of your ability to treat wastewater is something that the city needs to address as soon as you possibly can, because these developments that are coming online and the developments that want to come online will impact you in the very near future,” Diehl said.