BY TERRY L. JONES • MAY 19, 2008

Across the nation, aging sewer systems have become a problem local municipalities can no longer ignore.

According to Environmental Protection Agency data analyzed by the Gannett News Service, at least one-third of the nation's large publicly-owned sewage treatment systems have been penalized by the EPA or state regulators for sewage spills or other violations.

Hattiesburg's north and south lagoons combined received more than 20 violations from the EPA between January 2003 and February this year.

Comparably-sized cities such as Biloxi and Meridian received seven and 14 violations respectively during the same period.
The south lagoon has a flow capacity of 20 million gallons per day while the north lagoon processes about 2 million gallons daily.

The city's south lagoon was issued with two administrative orders to comply with the Clean Water Act in October 2006 and December 2007. The later order resulted in a $9,700 fine for the city, Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality officials said.

Despite those infractions, Bennie Sellers, Hattiesburg's director of public services, said the city's sewer system is operating at a satisfactory level.

"Today our sewer system is in much better shape than it was when I was doing engineering work in the '80s," Sellers said. "I wish I could tell you we had zero violations (but) I don't think you can find any city that has (none)."

Robbie Wilbur, spokesman for the MDEQ, said most of the violations issued to the city had to do with the lagoons' biochemical oxygen demand levels.

"It looks like they exceeded their permit requirements," Wilbur said.

Sellers said most of the violations found on the south lagoon were after-effects of Hurricane Katrina.

But Ward 2 Councilwoman Deborah Denard Delgado said she finds that hard to believe.

"Other cities had Katrina impact too," she said. "We just need to step up. It's just unbelievable we continue on this way. Recommendations have been made in the past about what we should do and we haven't done it."

Delgado and the rest of the council must now decide whether the city will spend as much as $60,000 to treat waste waters in the south lagoon to reduce the amount of sludge build-up and abate the stench that has blanketed the city in the recent weeks.

"I want the stench to go away for citizens but we've got to be wise," Delgado said. "We have failed to maintain it (lagoon) properly. I'm not a scientist but I do know we have been told what we need to do and we haven't done it."

Sellers estimates that since 1990 the city has spent up to $40 million on sewer improvements for the more than 300 miles of sewer lines snaking beneath Hattiesburg. That figure is without any help from the federal government, he said.

Mayor Johnny DuPree recently announced the city would receive $3.8 million in federal funds through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' 592 grant program.

The city will match $1.2 million to that, and Sellers said the city plans to use the $5 million for improvements to the North Lagoon.

The improvements will expand the amount of waste water the lagoon can process from 2 million to 4 million gallons per day, Sellers said.

The federal government has budgeted $687 million for wastewater improvements this year, according to the National Association of Clean Water Agencies.

The association estimates that the nation's public wastewater treatment plants and sewage collection systems need about $350 billion to $500 billion over the next 20 years for repairs and upgrades. Increasing sewer rates periodically is a solution Sellers said could help municipalities like Hattiesburg maintain their sewer systems and decrease the amount of bonds cities must issue to finance maintenance projects.

"If we can get to the point where the amount of revenue we (have) from water and sewage collections at the end of the year, after paying operating costs, is a million dollars ... that million dollars (could) be used for nothing but repair, replacement and extension of water and sewer lines," he said.

Hattiesburg residents have only experienced a 2 percent rate increase in the past three years, Sellers said.

"By having that on an annual basis you can avoid these $5 million, $10 million and $15 million bond issues we have to do every four or five years," Sellers said. "Hattiesburg is not going to get any smaller. What we gotta try to do is get ahead of the curve."