Morgantown Dominion Post
2 August 2007
By Tracy Eddy
STAR CITY - Town officials said Wednesday that Morgantown Utility Board Executive Director Jim Green did not give them the commitment they were seeking regarding odor from MUB's sewage treatment plant.
They want to know that the problem will be taken care of quickly.
"We've been talking for quite some time and we want a commitment," Mayor Allen Sharp said. "We want to get to a place where we know what's going to be done and we can say that, yes, something is being done about the odor."
Sharp said the project hasn't moved forward since town officials met with Green in November.
Sharp said it was decided at the November meeting that the town would wait for MUB to upgrade the wastewater treatment plant - a project still in the preliminary stages.
The odor control project is slated to be a part of that upgrade and expansion, which will increase treatment capabilities, Green said.
"Right now, I'm not willing or prepared to say when this is going to be done. I just can't put a finger on it," Green said.
Engineers are looking at what's cost-effective and determining what processes are releasing the odors.
Green said he can't make a commitment until after a meeting with the MUB board of directors.
Green said he hopes to develop a plan by spring 2008. Completion of the project is estimated for late 2010 or into 2011.
Green said odor control as a stand-alone project could cost up to $1 million, so lumping it in with the expansion project saves money.
"If we just concentrate on one project at a time, that's not financially wise," Green said.
If the odor-control project was completed before the expansion, Green said, some of the initial repairs might have to be scrapped in order to renovate the plant according to codes.
No specific suggestions were made on how the odor will be controlled.
"We don't know exactly what we're going to do to this facility yet, but I have to be clear that I can't guarantee you we're going to stop 100 percent of the odors coming from the plant," Green said.
Tanya Musick, co-chair of the Community Development Committee, said the smell is at its worst in the summer.
"I've lived in my house for 20 years, and I haven't been able to sit outside in July and August," Musick said.
Star City officials said the odor not only affects the residents of the town, but also its businesses and growth.
Delbert Royce, co-chair of the Visioning and Development Task Force, blames the slow development of the town's riverfront on its proximity to the plant, saying businesses are hesitant to open because of the odor.
"We've got a town that's trying to grow and we're trying to help it," Royce said.
Green agreed to notify town officials on the progress of the project by periodically sending out memos.
Jim Gaston, co-chair of the Visioning and Development Task Force, said, "Star City is sitting here at your mercy, so to speak. This is something that's been with us a long time and it needs to be corrected."