At issue is a July 18, 2007 moratorium that TDEC levied on SWS banning new connections to the Boyds Creek Force Main, which serves most of the Seymour area. The moratorium called for the utility to present a Corrective Action Plan to TDEC, with the moratorium to be lifted upon completion of the plan.
At present, according to Bob Stahlke, Public Information Officer for the City of Sevierville, the items contained in that plan aren’t due for completion until January of 2009.
But in an email sent to the Times on Tuesday, April 29, Stahlke said that “We thought that after the City submitted an approved plan of action to TDEC addressing the sewer needs of the area, we would be able to review, approve and make new connections, within our existing guidelines and regulations.”
It appears that TDEC feels differently. Stahlke told the Times that “TDEC interpreted the moratorium as meaning that no new connections could be made until the planned construction was complete.”
Stahlke said that the utility is drafting a letter to TDEC in response to their request for what he called “written justification stating the reasons we feel the moratorium should be lifted.” The utility hopes the letter will resolve the conflict of interpretation.
TDEC’s Communications Director Tisha Calabrese-Benton told the Times that “Possible ramifications from overflows range from issuance of Notices of Violation to issuance of enforcement orders with stipulated civil penalties for necessary corrective actions.” As such civil penalties would be borne by the ratepayers, the question was raised with Stahlke if the utility had a notification process in place by which they would inform local government of the issue at hand.
Stahlke however said that “The City considers receives requests for sewer service from developers and landowners, not the planning or county commissions. Those bodies do not approve sewer service or connections to our system. As far as we know, it is not necessary to inform those bodies of our guidelines and procedures, since they do not grant approval of sewer service.”
The County Commission and County Planning Commission are however charged with the recommendations and approval of rezoning requests, which according to the county’s own zoning regulations require the connection of city water and sewer to high-density residential areas.
But Stahlke said “...that in either scenario planning and approvals are allowed and are appropriate. The only difference in the interpretation is when connections for any development that is not grandfathered would be allowed.”
Calabrese-Benton made it clear that TDEC is monitoring the situation very closely. TDEC, she said, “responds to complaints or otherwise makes site-visits as necessary, and will go visit areas of recent overflows during annual inspections of the waste water treatment plant to see how well the permittee has responded to the overflows.”
“In the case of the Boyds Creek overflows, in addition to the overflows being self-reported, staff from the department’s Division of Water Pollution Control did go visit each of the pump stations in response to a complaint,” she continued. TDEC will also conduct an annual surprise inspection at the McCroskey Island Wastewater Treatment Plant.
They are also scrutinizing any new requests for connections to the Boyds Creek Force Main.
