City notes progress on EPA consent decree

Aug. 31—Meridian City Council members on Tuesday received an update on the city's EPA consent decree from Waggoner Engineering's Scott Phillips. Phillips has been providing the council with quarterly reports of where the city stands on the decree.

The consent decree, Phillips said, is a legal agreement between the City of Meridian, EPA, Department of Justice and Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality that outlines what the city must do to address issues with its wastewater system.

"It's not optional," he said. "It's a legal document that requires you get in compliance with the Clean Water Act."

Should the city choose not to follow the consent decree, the EPA could impose large fines and eventually appoint a receiver to seize control of the city's wastewater system.

Seven big projects

Meridian's wastewater system is a big system, Phillips said, with more than 400 miles of pipe and 66 lift stations operating around the city. Within that system, he said, there are seven large projects that need to be done to fix the city's wastewater infrastructure.

The first phase of replacing the Hwy 80 trunk line was completed last year, and now the city is getting ready to bid out the first part of phase two. Part A, which was scheduled to go out for bid Wednesday, is expected to cost around $1.1 million, and Part B, which is still being finalized, is expected to cost about $5 million.

Phillips said the city is working on projects to replace a 54-inch intercepter line, estimated at $3.1 million, address the West Meridian Trunk Line for which the city is hoping to receive a Community Development Block Grant to cover the estimated $4.6 million, replace a sewer line along B Street at a cost of around $400,000 which was added to the Sela Ward Parkway project, and multiple sewer repairs in and around Meridian's medical district.

In total, Phillips said, the projects add up to more than $30.8 million of work that is either out for bid, has been awarded or getting ready to be bid out.

These multi-million projects are big undertakings, Phillips said, but they don't represent all the work that is being done. The City of Meridian, he said, has been fixing things since the consent decree began.

"You've been fixing things since you started in 2019," he said. "These are just much, much bigger."

Complying with the consent decree, however, will require more than just new pipes, Phillips said. As construction projects are being done on the physical infrastructure, he said new policies and procedures will be put in place and new technologies added to help Public Works maintain, monitor and repair the city's sewer systems.

Part of the project, he said, will be creating new positions within Public Works that will provide the skills and technical know-how to keep Meridian's sewer system in top shape.

"Without these people you will not be able to comply with the consent decree," he said.

South Wastewater Treatment Plant

Another large-scale project down the line will be deciding what to do with the city's South Wastewater Treatment Plant, Phillips said. The city had begun the process of designing a rebuild project for the plant, he said, but stopped after learning the EPA was expected to release new guidelines on acceptable levels of phosphorous and other materials.

"The EPA wanted to put those numbers at very low levels that our plant currently cannot meet," he said.

If the EPA does lower levels of acceptable materials, Phillips said the city would be looking at building a new plant. The cost for a new plant, he said, would be between $180 million and $220 million.

While the city waits to hear from the EPA, Phillips said repairs and restorations were ongoing at the South Wastewater Treatment Plant to keep it functioning under the current guidelines. The short term cost, he said, was about $4.1 million.

The search for outside funding

In addition to implementing the consent decree, Phillips said the city is also looking for outside sources of funding that could take some of the burden off of taxpayers. The city has already issued some bonds and will likely need to issue more, he said, but any grants or outside funding that can be used is money that won't have to come from Meridian's taxpayers.

The city council is expected to authorize a grant application through MDEQ that will match the city's $8 million in American Rescue Plan Act money with state ARPA money. Earlier this year, the state legislature allocated more than $400 million to provide cities and counties with a one-to-one match for qualifying projects. If approved, the city could have about $16 million to put toward large consent decree projects.

With rising interest rates, Phillips encouraged the council to put its full ARPA allocation into the matching program to avoid having to issue bonds before absolutely necessary.

"We're doing all we can to avoid having to go back to the bond market for as long as possible," he said.

The city council will receive its next update on the consent decree in December.