Agreement on sewers to get public airing

The months-long negotiations between Wilmington officials and state environmental regulators and their plans to fix the Port City's sewer woes will soon receive a dose of public scrutiny.

The so-called special order by consent agreement, which is intended to reduce flows through the troubled Northeast Interceptor, hold the city to a strict timetable for sewer repairs and lob fines at the city if those deadlines aren't reached, was signed by City Manager Sterling Cheatham and sent to the N.C. Division of Water Quality on Friday.

While a city news release on Friday said the state accepted the agreement, city officials said Monday the document is not final and the state could make some changes in the next few days.

The next step for the agreement is a public comment period, which could include a public hearing. Susan Massengale, a DWQ spokeswoman, said a hearing is likely because there is "extensive public interest" in the sewer situation.

The public hearing is not yet scheduled but has to be advertised at least 30 days in advance. The N.C. Environmental Management Commission then must make its final decision within 90 days of the hearing.

Meanwhile, the city is moving forward with repairs. Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo said the heightened state oversight will ensure residents that city officials are doing things right.

"It's basically giving a level of comfort to the state and the citizens that we are doing what we say we are doing," Saffo said.

According to the draft agreement, the city must complete about $5 million worth of repairs by June 30, 2008, or face daily fines of $1,000. That work includes relining 2,000 feet of pipe on Greenville Loop Road, relocating about 7,000 feet of interceptor pipe away from Hewletts Creek and improving capacity at two pump stations.

City officials must also provide the state with flow data and compliance reports on time, or face daily $1,000 fines. And any sewer spill associated with the interceptor will cost the city $5,000 the first time, with the fine doubling for each spill.

City officials hope to finish long before the deadline. The city already has awarded the contracts for the repairs and plans to begin the bulk of the work in August, finishing in January. That will enable the state to lift the moratorium on new sewer extensions in the interceptor area.

"We have made tremendous strides in moving those time frames up," Saffo said. "We feel very confident we can finish on time. Everybody wants to try to finish as quickly as possible, and it seems we are moving ahead of schedule."

Work hazard

But sewer repair work has its pitfalls, which was illustrated last week when 13,000 gallons of sewage spilled into Bradley Creek. At the time, a contractor was working to repair and upgrade the Bradley Creek outfall, a county-maintained pipe that flows into the interceptor at the Bradley Creek pump station.

The repairs have been put on hold by a county-issued stop work order until the contractor, Reynolds Inliner LLC, presents a plan to ensure that more spills don't occur.

Bill Kopp, a New Hanover commissioner and chairman of the county's water and sewer district, said Monday that both he and County Manager Bruce Shell will sign off on the plan before the contractor will be allowed to resume work. Kopp said he expects the contractor to present the plan to county officials Wednesday.

"It's very disheartening to see this happen," Kopp said. "I can understand maybe it happens once, but when it happens three times, someone is asleep at the switch."

With millions of dollars of the city's own sewer work scheduled, Cheatham said city project managers and engineering consultants should be enough to make sure there are no spills, but he stressed that accidents can't be predicted.

"Hopefully, the more eyes we have on the work, the better the product and the safer the product," he said. "It's worked so far and hopefully it will continue."

Ongoing work

The interceptor has been the cause of numerous sewer spills since 2005, resulting in millions of gallons of sewage entering area waterways. That has attracted heightened state oversight, including fines and development restrictions. The Environmental Protection Agency is also investigating numerous violations of the Clean Water Act.

The idea of entering into a consent order with the state has been discussed by environmentalists since Wilmington's recent sewer woes began. City officials announced their own desire to create a consent order in early March as they faced increased pressure from state and federal regulators, plus state legislators who said at the time that Wilmington was not in "crisis mode" to fix the sewers.

The Wilmington City Council approved a draft consent order and plan to limit flows through the troubled interceptor in early April. That plan - specifically efforts to continue issuing unlimited residential and some commercial building permits - was rejected by state regulators in early May.

That plan was amended and became the current policy, which includes diverting 600,000 gallons away from the interceptor. In addition, the plan caps new sewer flows at 120,000 gallons each in the interceptor area and the Northside basin. In the Northside area, that flow is equally divided between the city and New Hanover County.

As of Monday, the city had approved projects adding 44,520 gallons of its 60,000 gallons of Northside flow, while the county has permitted 9,710 gallons. In the interceptor area, all of the 60,000-gallon residential flows and 53,412 gallons of the 60,000-gallon commercial flows have been used up.

Chris Mazzolini: 343-2223

chris.mazzolini@starnewsonline.com