Tuesday, March 29, 2022

Bill Creating New Wastewater District in Hinds County Passes

The legislature passed a bill yesterday that will create a new wastewater authority district for west Hinds County.  

State Representatives De'Keither Stamps and Stephanie Foster authored HB #1762.  The bill creates the Clinton/Raymond/Bolton Wastewater Authority.  Section 2 of the bill states: 

 This act is for the purpose of authorizing a cooperative effort by an area situated within Hinds County including the areas situated within the corporate boundaries of the Cities of Clinton and Raymond and the Town of Bolton and any and all public agencies, and public utilities for the acquisition, construction and operation of one or more systems for the collection, transportation, treatment and disposal of wastewater; including sewerage systems, sewage disposal systems, and industrial wastewater, in order to prevent and control the pollution of the waters in this state by the creation of a Clinton/Raymond/Bolton Wastewater Authority. Test & history of bill.

Clinton, Raymond, and Bolton may file a joint petition to create the authority in Hinds County Chancery Court.  The Chancellor will schedule a hearing at least thirty days later.  Opponents can present their case against the petition at the hearing.  

Clinton Mayor Phil Fisher said the authority will make the area the largest economic development opportunity in the state.  "When you add the rail, trucking, and port at Vicksburg as well as the sewer system, 38 square miles will be open to residential, commercial, and industrial growth", said Mayor Fisher.  

Capacity problems spurred the bill.  MDEQ and EPA prefer to work with an authority instead of individual cities.  Clinton now uses lagoons at Southside, Lovett, and the Briars.  The treated wastewater is released into Baker's Creek.  However, MDEQ said the creek would be closed to further discharge by 2025 and the city would need to find an alternate way to treat its wastewater.  Clinton is expanding the Lovett lagoon but that only earned Clinton a five-year extension to 2030.  The other twi cities were in the same boat with their wastewater discharge so the Mayors worked together to create the plan.  

Mayor Fisher said using Jackson's wastewater system was not feasible.  A ridge between Jackson and the Byram-Clinton-Bolton corridor creates more costs due to pressure problems.  The Big Black River is the same distance as the Pearl River.  The Pearl River is at "full capacity" as it already handles the discharge from the West Rankin Utility Authority and Jackson.  

The estimated cost is $97 million.  Mayor Fisher said $45 million is for pipe installation.  The authority will seek federal funding and can sell bonds as well.  

A board of directors will oversee the operation of the authority.  Section 6 specifies the board's composition:

All powers of the authority shall be exercised by a board of directors to be selected and composed as follows:  The governing body of each member agency shall appoint one (1) person to serve on the board of directors for each thirty percent (30%) or less of the flow that member's flow represents of the total flow of the authority as determined on December 31 of the preceding year, each such director to serve at the pleasure of the respective governing body.  At the time any additional public agency or public utility is added as a member of the authority and appoints one (1) person to serve on the board of directors, the member which has fifty-one percent (51%) or more of the total flow of the authority as determined on December 31 of the preceding year, shall before the next board meeting also appoint an additional person to serve on the board of directors.

The CEO of the authority serves on the board as well and yes, he does get a vote.  

Co-sponsor Stamps agreed with Mayor Fisher's assessment.  He said the lack of utilities has been a major impediment to the development of western Hinds County. He said "I worked to bring wastewater services to the people that needed it in Western Hinds County.  For far too long we had people with sewage running in their back yards.  That should not be happening in 2022.  He said he tried to get Jackson to extend its sewer service to that part of Hinds County but was unable to do so.  

The bill now goes to Governor Tate Reeves for his signature.  

 

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm sure it's needed but WHO will be running and getting paid to run this clear pork package ? Will this person be qualified ? Will this person be kinfolk to one or all three of these people. The "authority" needs to be someone qualified and by all means honest.

Kingfish said...

Why is it pork?

Anonymous said...

I don't smell pork, but I do smell nepotism.

Anonymous said...

I am sure investors will line up to buy these bonds. Maybe these communities can use the Atlanta bond broker who fleeced Rolling Fork, if he are not currently in jail.

Anonymous said...

What I smell is smart people who understand what is happening deciding to get the hell away from that pile of $h!+ backing up at Savannah Street. Economic growth that is dependent upon that clown show trying to bury a once proud city is economic growth that will be stymied by consent decrees and "bad batches of chemicals" and lazy @$$ incompetents who forget to order system parts.

Anonymous said...

11:29 : Isn't everything ? Maybe it isn't, idk. When you have zero faith everything comes out negative.

Kingfish said...

They won't be using him.

Anonymous said...

so.. three cities in hinds county worked TOGETHER on something? that's a first..

Kingfish said...

Or the county's three stepchildren got together and created something.

Supervisors were left out of this deal too. Those Mayors figured out the Supervisors couldn't care less about them and are working together.

Lumumba = Epic Fail said...

Economic growth that is dependent upon that clown show trying to bury a once proud city is economic growth that will be stymied by consent decrees and "bad batches of chemicals" and lazy @$$ incompetents who forget to order system parts.

Litany of excuses coming out of Lumumba's administration to misdirect away from the gross incompetence at the top is staggering but now not surprising.

Anonymous said...

12:21 : This.

Anonymous said...

With good things happening in this for Bolton, this should be on Bennie's radar for federal funding.

Anonymous said...

So, big picture, what’s this gonna cost the City of Jackson? It can’t be good.

Anonymous said...

3:26, you should be right that Bennie should support this since it’s good for Bolton. But Bennie also needs the Hinds County vote, so we’ll see what he does.

Quick! Get Me A Pipe Wranch said...

Bennie who? Don't forget what he did for the Delta residents with their 80 year plea for flood pumps. He killed the whole damned she-bang. Oh...It's in his district.

Regarding this write-up, the term 'flow' jumps off the page. If degreed folk can't figure out how to bill end users, how to test and measure chemical batches, how to fix treatment pumps and how to keep from dumping shit into our rivers, how they gonna figure out 'flow'. Frankly, I suspect the 'flow' will find its way to Port Gibson via the Big Black.

Anonymous said...

"MDEQ and EPA prefer to work with an authority instead of individual cities."

"A ridge between Jackson and the Byram-Clinton-Bolton corridor creates more costs due to pressure problems."

Not exactly.

Kingfish said...

Just repeating what the Mayor said. Also, the Congressman is on board with this project.


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