Over 31,000 linear feet of sewer main has been rehabilitated using…
Smokey Barn News
Thursday Feb. 27 2014
Springfield, TN
Springfield Continues Progress In Sewer System Rehabilitation
The City of Springfield continues to make steady progress in performing sewer system rehabilitation work to meet the requirements of the EPA Administrative Order on Consent. The work to be performed under contract with Insituform Technologies, LLC to repair the Circle Drive area collection basin began on August 24, 2013. This contract is in the amount of $2,376,615. The repair of this basin is ranked as the highest priority rehabilitation project. The contractor has 270 days to complete the project and the final completion date is May 22, 2014.
All of the main repair using cured in place pipe has been accomplished as of mid-February. Over 31,000 linear feet of sewer main has been rehabilitated using this method. The contractor is now in the process of making point repairs to mains and service laterals, and repairing service laterals using cured in place pipe. The total number of service laterals to be repaired is 390. Clean-outs will be installed on service laterals where necessary. A total of 120 sewer manholes will also be sealed as a part of this contract.
The second highest priority project is the repair of the basins serving the Stonegate subdivision area and the Old Greenbrier Pike area. American Infrastructure Technologies Corporation has been awarded a contract in the amount of $1,298,575 for this work. The contract will take 180 days to complete. Work on this project began on January 27, 2014 and final completion is scheduled for July 26, 2014.
The contractor on this project is in the process of televising (viewing) sewer mains in preparation for construction. The scope of the contract will involve rehabilitation of 8,810 linear feet of main with cured in place pipe, the replacement of 3,800 linear feet of 6-inch main with new 8-inch main, the sealing of approximately 100 manholes, and the repair of 115 sewer laterals by point repair or cured in place pipe.
At the November 2013 regular meeting, the Springfield Board of Mayor and Aldermen authorized the expenditure of $1,795,976 for the next tasks to be performed under the engineering contract with Gresham, Smith and Partners. The work involves preparing documentation, reports, and policies and procedures required to be submitted to the EPA; testing and evaluating the next series of sanitary sewer collection basins; and preparing contract bid specifications for the next eight sub-basins to be rehabilitated. The City has been staying on schedule in submitting the required quarterly progress reports to the EPA.
Update provided by Springfield City Manager Paul Nutting.
Jim Ball reporting
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My husband and I could have lost our lives to the City of White House’s ARRA funded Cope’s Crossing Sewer Project- 2010-2012. The day I reported sewer gas in our basement, a long time employee of City of White House Wastewater came without hesitation and checked the basement and confirmed the sewer odor.
City Administrator Herman repeatedly said ‘the odor is not coming from us.’ Now Wastewater is not allowed to enter homes.
It was coming from the city system, and in a more devastating and dangerous way than we could have ever realized.
After seventeen months of hell we finally learned the truth of what was happening. But it took a Public Works Director in another state, an engineer in another state, plumbers, and perhaps hundreds of phone calls, and the purchase of a sewer gas detector to do it. What we went through during that time cannot be adequately described. Our City should have helped us. Instead, others did what they would not. When I would plead with the Wastewater techs to help us, I was told all they could do was tell their boss. Their boss’s boss is City Administrator Herman.
Our home should never have been hooked up to the new system when it was. After learning what we have, I do not see how any engineer with knowledge of the project could not have known what was happening at our home.
We could not afford the $12,000.00 to $15,000.00 sewer odor study, so we had to rely on the decency and generosity of others. I thank God each and every day that we found such people. I cannot go into our basement without thinking of these good people. I cannot step outside our doors without thinking of them. I thank God for Google Earth, and I thank God for the Open Records Act. Without caring people, advanced technology, and good law, my husband and I would never have learned the truth. I hope one day that the ones that helped us will allow me to try to get them officially acknowledged. It might be a far-fetched dream, but I would like for the President to officially acknowledge them. As far as I’m concerned, they helped under ARRA, and they did it because we were desperate and they were decent.
The Cope’s Crossing Sewer Project was funded in part by The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). Ms. Dorothy Rayfield, EPA Region IV, said the money was not sent to hurt us. I believe Ms. Rayfield truly believes that, and I believe it as well. But the project did hurt us, in many more ways than just the devastating sewer gas. The gas was just the final blow.
One day I will take this story to Washington. Something has to be done so that another Cope’s Crossing Sewer Project never happens again. A sewer project should not put lives at risk.
I hope Springfield is looking out for its people and thinking of their safety during this work. And I want to say to the Springfield Government that each citizen is just as valuable as the next. All citizens should be treated equally. Please, if one of your citizens comes and says that your project brought harm to them, PLEASE LISTEN, do not leave them to suffer as our City left us. It is devastating. And it should never happen in the United States of America.
I want to add that I am leaving this information under my name only; my husband was not involved in posting this. Because of the Cope’s Crossing Sewer Project, our home is mortgaged again. My husband has to go to work each day to support us. I will take responsibility for what I have left here and there’s plenty more where this came from. I am a fifty-six year old grandmother of two—both of my grandbabies were born while the project was ongoing or we were dealing with the aftermath. City Administrator Herman has pointed to me as a harasser but all that does is fuel my desire to take this story to Washington and to help others while I’m doing it. Helping heals. We needs lots of healing. Mr. Herman can focus on me and leave my husband alone.
Soon I will have the information on how our home was venting for the city system made available to the public. I hope that by releasing this information others will not have to endure what we did. It may even save a life.
Until then I can be reached at [email protected]
Thanks for reading this. I appreciate it. Nancy Stinson, City of White House, TN resident since 1985