News and events in Oak Ridge, Tennessee
At its next meeting, the Oak Ridge City Council will consider whether to attempt to negotiate a better deal with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on the sewer upgrades or not.
About three and a half years ago, the EPA inspected the Oak Ridge sewer system and noted excessive rain water leaking into that system during storms. In April 2010, EPA sent the city a show cause letter which requested a face-to-face meeting to “show cause” why EPA should not intervene. Instead of meeting with EPA, the Council chose to phone in an informal response. Subsequently, EPA imposed a 20-page administrative order filled with expensive add-on requirements and a $170,000 civil penalty.
The total cost of the sewer improvements is in the neighborhood of $50 million. Paying for these improvements has so far required two major utility rate increases and a major increase in city debt. More rate hikes are likely.
Trina Baughn
After more than an hour of discussion, the Oak Ridge City Council on Monday approved the borrowing of $18 million in low-interest state loans to help pay for a $23 million project to fix the municipal sewer system.
Council voted 6-1 to borrow the money at a 1.23 percent interest rate through the State Revolving Fund program, which is administered by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.
The work is being done to comply with a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency order that requires Oak Ridge to repair all sewer system overflows by Sept. 28, 2015.
Last month, Oak Ridgers were hit with a water/sewer rate increase for the second time in nine months to pay for $15 million worth of debt that you were told (incorrectly) was issued to cover a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency mandate. On Monday night, City Council is preparing to approve another $18 million in debt for the same cause, which will result in subsequent rate increases.
A statement I received this weekend from one resident sums up the frustrations that so many of you have been sharing with me: “Utility rates (water, sewer, electrical, trash pickup, etc.) keep going up; the city and county property ‘double’ taxation is simply too much. It so happens that our group of friends and us discuss the idea of moving to other less costly vicinities nearby more often than before. We would strongly suggest that our city government start budgeting our expenditures with the money we have.”
Editor’s note: The Oak Ridge City Council recently established an ad hoc subcommittee to focus on issues related to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrative order on inflow and infiltration of the city’s wastewater system. Councilman Chuck Hope, who is chairman of the subcommittee, provided the following report on its recent meeting with the EPA in Atlanta.
The subcommittee of City Council that was formed to address our EPA Administrative Order concerns, went to Atlanta, Ga., on Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013, to meet with staff from the Southeast Regional (Region 4) EPA office.
The meeting was attended by four EPA staff members: Denisse Diaz, clean water enforcement branch chief; Maurice Horsey, municipal and industrial enforcement section chief; Michele Whetherington, assistant regional counsel; and Dennis Sayre, our assigned contact in municipal and industrial enforcement.
Note: This is a copy of a letter sent to Oak Ridge Mayor Tom Beehan and Oak Ridge City Council members, among others.
Dear Mayor Beehan,
Next Monday evening you will begin considering a major increase in the Oak Ridge city debt to finance the sewer upgrade project. This increase and the associated utility rate increases:
Readers have inquired about the work at this 13-acre site at Oak Ridge Turnpike and California Avenue, and a property owner said the land is being used to store materials for city sewer work required under a federal mandate.
Several readers have noticed what appears to be construction work at a former Chevrolet dealership on Oak Ridge Turnpike and asked what is happening there.
On Friday, Rick Chinn, partner in R&R Enterprises, which owns the 13-acre lot, said it is being used to store materials for city sewer work required under a federal mandate.
The land, which is east of Oak Ridge Veterinary Hospital and across from California Avenue, will also be used for operations during the sewer system project.
Workers fill the sumps at the Toxic Substances Control Act Incinerator with grout, as part of the work to close it. (Submitted photo)
A one-of-a-kind waste incinerator, which began operations at the East Tennessee Technology Park more than 20 years ago, has been safely shut down.
When the Toxic Substances Control Act Incinerator, or TSCAI, began operations in 1990, the intent was to run it for five years to prove the technology worked. It was the only incinerator in the nation permitted to burn certain hazardous and radioactive wastes.
Operations ceased in December 2009, after a safe and successful run that saw the facility burn 35 million pounds of liquids and solids from DOE sites across the United States—even some from Hawaii.
A potential agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency settling fines for sewer system overflows in Oak Ridge could save the city several million dollars.
The fines during a five-year period ending September 2010 could have totaled between $4 million and $5 million, city officials said this week.
But under negotiations between the city and EPA, the penalties could be lowered to approximately $170,000, Oak Ridge City Attorney Ken Krushenski said Tuesday. The city would have to pay $102,000 in cash and might get a “dollar-for-dollar” credit for spending another $68,000 on a supplemental environmental project, or SEP.
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