It seems challenges for a new wastewater treatment plant for the City of Gray just keep on coming with the latest being supply issues.
Council members had a work session with the team building Gray’s new plant and listened to the progress being made as well as new challenges. The meeting was led by Spencer Senerman with the engineering firm of Carter and Sloope and Bill Hall with Haren Construction Company.
Haren is the company constructing the plant.
Project inspector Jim Lewis, with Carter and Sloope, was in attendance as was Mayor Ed Barbee, councilmen David Tufts and Terrell Fulford and Mayor Pro Tem James Collins, Gray’s Assistant Superintendent Cheyenne Morgan, city employees Matthew Scroggins, Chris Neal, Heather Brown and
City Clerk Cindy Yancey.
Hall began by saying the recent storms had caused a struggle for progress since the May meeting. He passed out a project checklist and said some equipment had been received and demo work was underway.
All in all, his report was positive, stating that the project was on track. The only potential delays are what is happening everywhere, pricing issues and material delays.
Morgan later explained that this first phase is clearing the land and preparation for the construction of the new treatment plan. He said, while the construction project is underway, the rehabilitation of problem areas in aging sewer lines is continuing. American Rescue funds received by the city are being utilized for the rehab project.
To say the construction of a new wastewater treatment plant for Gray has been on the drawing board for decades is no exaggeration. Gray’s wastewater woes date back to 1999 with its first consent order from the Environmental Protection Division.
That consent order was not lifted until 2003.
The plans for a new wastewater treatment plant have been ongoing since that time, but the cost has been the ongoing problem. The city applied for a loan through the USDA in 2010 for a 1.2 MGD wastewater treatment plant with a $12 million price tag. A change in USDA leadership before the loan was approved put the brakes on the project.
The new USDA leadership determined the city would only qualify for a 0.8 MGD plant. After years of negotiations, the city withdrew its application in 2015 and decided to work on infiltration and inflow issues in the aging sewer lines.
After three years of growth in the city and increased rains, Gray’s city council found themselves back in the familiar territory of needing to expand the city’s wastewater treatment plant.
Not only did the problem not go away, but the EPD and another consent order was once more involved. At a Feb. 11, 2020, meeting with consulting engineers, council members were told that even if they corrected all the I&I issues with the system, their wastewater treatment plant would still be operating at 70 percent capacity.
With the ever-increasing cost of construction, engineers presented the city with another option. The construction of a smaller 0.4 MGD plant coupled with the rehab of the current 0.4 MGD plant that together would give the city the needed 0.8 MGD capacity.
That put the city back to the drawing board with financing, ultimately being approved for a $9 million GEFA loan in October of 2021. The loan amount was increased to
$10.5 million at a Jan. 24 called meeting and the bid for the project was awarded to the Haren Construction Company at the same meeting.
Groundbreaking for the new plant took place May 3. The next construction progress meeting is scheduled July 21.
