Tempest over sewage plant slows Bayou project

Bayou La Batre officials say a new wastewater treatment plant in this Alabama fishing village is needed now to handle sewage from post-Hurricane Katrina growth and seafood industry waste.

Opponents of the plant site agree about replacing an aging treatment plant whose poor environmental record goes back before Katrina flooded the village in 2005.

But they warn a hurricane could wreck the $28 million, federally-funded project and argue its discharge pipe would threaten marine habitat in the Mississippi Sound.

Bayou officials turned down an offer to tie into a regional wastewater system that would eliminate the need for the discharge line. They were concerned in part that they would lose control of water rates.

The Alabama Department of Environmental Management has given tentative approval for the new plant, but the agency is reviewing comments from a June 24 public hearing before a final decision.

ADEM spokesman Scott Hughes said it's a unique situation because officials can't shut down the existing plant, since people need somewhere to dispose of wastewater from their homes. But the attorney general's office sued the city's utilities board last year, citing repeated failures to treat raw sewage properly at the existing plant in the past five years.

An environmental group, Mobile Baykeeper, intervened as a plaintiff in that suit to make sure the case has a watchdog.

Opponents of the new plant say its location near the old one makes it vulnerable to hurricane surges and endangers marine life with effluent discharge into Portersville Bay and the Mississippi Sound.

The discharge line would extend 5,000 feet into the waterway, compared to 500 feet now.

State Conservation Department marine biologist Mark Van Hoose said the new line wouldn't threaten oyster beds. He said health officials would have to determine if seafood caught near the discharge line is safe to eat. But he said there are buffer zones around existing discharge lines to prohibit fishing.

Nationwide, wastewater treatment plants and related sewage overflows account for more than 30 percent of all shellfish area closures and are a primary source of viral and bacterial pollution in estuarine environments, according to marine experts.

If ADEM gives final permit approval, a court challenge is expected, said Robert Campbell, a Mobile attorney for Portersville Revival Group, which opposes the plant site.

The city of 2,700 residents rejected an offer from the Mobile Area Water & Sewer System (MAWSS) to design and build a regional sewer lift station that would take the wastewater to a treatment plant in Mobile.

MAWSS director W. Malcolm Steeves said Wednesday the offer, made in December 2006, still stands and the only new construction would be a pipeline and pumping station.

Pete Barber, president and executive director of the Alabama Seafood Association, questioned the motives of the project's opponents. He said any delays could derail the project by raising the cost.

"The seafood industry is the backbone of Bayou La Batre. Without a viable wastewater treatment plant, it jeopardizes the industry," Barber said.

Elevated 22 feet above sea level, the proposed plant could treat 3 million gallons each day - three times the capacity of the old plant, built in 1974. It would also have a 9 million-gallon peak capacity for emergencies.

Chuck Faulkner, the design engineer for the new plant, said it could withstand a hurricane and it is located outside the federally designated "high velocity" flood zone.

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