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Geraldine, Rainsville eyeing sewer project

By Mark Harrison
The Times-Journal

Published July 9, 2009

Sewer lines could be installed in Geraldine and ultimately connected to a wastewater treatment plant in Rainsville.

Geraldine Mayor Billy Smothers has asked Rainsville officials to consider allowing Geraldine to tie onto a sewer line in Fyffe that runs from there into Rainsville’s wastewater treatment plant.

Rainsville Mayor Donnie Chandler said although the line is owned by Section Water Works, the Rainsville City Council must consent to the tie-on since Rainsville’s treatment plant would be the facility responsible for handling the extra volume.

Chandler said the Rainsville council has asked the Geraldine council to contract with Ladd Environmental to put together an environmental impact study to indicate, among other things, how many additional gallons would be pumped into the Rainsville plant should the project be allowed.

Smothers said he and the town council would take the request into consideration. He said Geraldine now uses a septic tank system, and while there have been no serious problems with it, he feels expansion of sewer services could benefit future industrial recruitment efforts, as well as benefit Geraldine School and the town’s three public housing complexes.

He said if Rainsville signs off on the project, Geraldine would apply for grant money to pay the cost of running sewer lines along Highway 75 from Geraldine to Fyffe. Smothers said the exact cost of the project has yet to be determined, but estimates it could run “several million dollars.” He said the town has not applied for money as yet.

“The first step was to see whether or not they would let us do it or not,” Smothers said.

Chandler said the Rainsville council is receptive to the idea, but wants more information first. He said concerns about future industrial recruitment efforts are a factor for his city as well.

“We just want to make sure our plant can handle the extra load. We don’t want to get overloaded. We want to plan for the future and make sure we maintain enough capacity for any businesses or industry that might want to locate here,” Chandler said.

He said Rainsville’s wastewater treatment plant has a maximum capacity of about 1.5 million gallons per day, and about 400,000 gallons are now pumped in daily from the areas it services, which includes Rainsville, Fyffe, Sylvania, Powell and Northeast Alabama Community College.

Chandler said Rainsville could stand to gain “much needed revenue” through usage fees if the project is ultimately approved. He said he’s uncertain, at this time, how much those fees would be or exactly how they would be administrated.

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