http://www.roanoke.com/news/nrv/wb/wb/xp-129857

Blacksburg's latest sewer study circulating

The town continues to discuss its future sewer plans, an issue that dominated the 2004 election.

By Tonia Moxley
  381-1676

BLACKSBURG -- The newest in a trio of independent studies commissioned by the town council urges officials to spend $45 million over the next 20 years to upgrade the town's aging sewer system.

According to a draft report given this week to the Blacksburg Utilities Committee, Wiley & Wilson of Lynchburg suggests the town spend $3 million per year over 10 years, and $1.5 million for an additional decade, to replace or fix leaking lines and manholes and upgrade or replace overtaxed pumping stations.

The costs of phasing the project fall within the range of money the town already spends annually on sewer projects, Town Engineer Matt Stolte said.

The suggested projects are expected to reduce the amount of storm water that leaches into the system during heavy rainfall and reduce sewage bottlenecks at manholes and sewer lines. A previous Wiley & Wilson study found that heavy rainfall and overtaxed pumping systems -- not exuberant development -- have caused the majority of illegal sewage discharges around town.

Since 2004, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality has cited the town for sewage overflows three times, mostly from backups or mechanical problems at pumping stations. No overflows were reported this year, however, probably because of a continued drought, said Tim Wagner of Wiley & Wilson.

The council hired the Lynchburg firm to conduct an independent analysis of the town's sewer system after the 2004 council election, when voters ousted officials who supported a plan to build a multimillion-dollar sewer system in the mostly rural Toms Creek basin -- an election result that effectively killed that project. Supporters of the sewer plan said it would solve capacity problems in the existing system.

The two Wiley & Wilson studies conducted so far suggest that a Toms Creek system could fix existing problems but is not the only viable solution. A third sewer study is planned, this time to evaluate sewer options for the basin. Most homes there are served by traditional or alternative septic systems. Longtime basin landowners recently sued the town over a lack of public sewer service, but lost the case at the Virginia Supreme Court.

So far the town has contracted to spend $444,200 on sewer studies. Wiley & Wilson is scheduled to present its current findings to the council sometime next month. The third study is expected to take a year or more, Stolte said.