PF advised to build $40M waste treatment plant

Engineering consultants have recommended that Pigeon Forge plan on building a new wastewater treatment plant beginning in the next fiscal year, which was estimated to cost the city about $40 million. Senior Vice President with Smith, Seckman and Reid engineering firm, Kenny Diehl, spoke to the Pigeon Forge City Commissioners at a work session meeting on Thursday to give recommendations on the city’s projected sewer needs for the coming years. The city’s current plant which has a capacity to handle four million gallons-per-day and, according to Diehl, the plant is already experiencing days when it is operating at 97 percent capacity. The city sees peak wastewater usage during the summer and fall months when the tourist season is in full swing. Also, according to Diehl, the volume the plant is handling has increased nine percent annually over the past four years. Increasing the capacity of the city’s current plant is not an attractive option because state regulations will not allow increased discharge into the Little Pigeon River. The West Prong of the Little Pigeon River was placed on the Environmental Protection Agency’s 303D list of “impaired waters” in 2002. Diehl pointed out that the city’s wastewater discharge is not the reason that the river appears on the EPA’s list. According to the Tennessee Department of Agriculture website, the Little Pigeon River is on the list “for pathogens from failing septic tanks.” In addition, the city’s existing plant is 30 years old. “In the near future, the plant will be so costly to maintain that it won’t be worth fixing anymore,” said Diehl. “The most feasible and long-term solution is to build a new plant, with a new discharge point on the French Broad River,” said Diehl. Other potential options presented to the city commissioners include a temporary or permanent connection to Sevierville’s wastewater system. Instead, Diehl recommended that the city go ahead and expand with a new plant and double the size of the system’s capacity to eight million gallons-per-day. Diehl estimated that the plant would take approximately 30 to 36 months to design and build and recommended that the process start in the next fiscal year. “The longer you wait, the harder it’s going to be to approve further investments in your city,” said Diehl, alluding the consistent growth and high volume of large commercial and residential developments coming before the city planning commission each month. But no decisions were made at the work session and Pigeon Forge City Manager Earlene Teaster said the board would need time to ponder its options. “This is something that we really need to think about,” said Teaster. “This is about $40 million which we don’t have,” she said.