Watershed Plan Enables Growth

In November of 1998, a private utility submitted a preliminary design report to the state regulatory agency, addressing the owner's proposal to expand and upgrade a sewage treatment plant.

Growth was about to overwhelm the treatment facility, which serves a rapidly growing residential community.  As a consequence, the county government was about to deny any new building permits, to begin issuing permits for septic tanks, or both.  The utility was prepared to upgrade treatment, to relocate the discharge to a more favorable location, and to begin the expansion immediately- in effect to implement aggressive environmental protection measures.

Although it recognized the urgency of the situation, the state regulatory agency could not circumvent its normal procedures.  The state regulatory agency requires a watershed assessment before approving any wastewater system expansion.  This is the agency's only way of ensuring that local officials address nonpoint source pollution.  The state instructed the private utility to prepare a watershed assessment, which typically takes more than a year and can cost between $250,000 and several million dollars.

Using available information, much of it from the state’s own files, Envirosmith conducted the study and prepared the report in two months at a cost of less than $10,000.  The agency approved the watershed study and the treatment facility expansion.  The private utility is now expanding the treatment facility.

Email: jimson@mindspring.com