CMSD

By Mitchell Oakley 

LITTLEFIELD — Sewerage spills at the N.C. 11 pump station have been frequent during the past year. And, because of them, the Towns of Ayden and Winterville were notified by the North Carolina Division of Water Quality they would be put under a sewer moratorium on July 5, 2004.

The Town of Ayden has worked for five years in an effort to get grant money to replace aging sewer lines in town. Aged lines, no doubt, contributes to the inflow and infiltration issues that cause ground water to get into sewage.

Mayor Steve Tripp pointed out in an interview that the heavy rains of the past year — 27 inches more rainfall than usual — have gotten into the deteriorating lines, including the 2.1 miles of CMSD concrete line that has deteriorated rapidly of late.

Tripp says however that the spills are being treated on site. “When it does happen at the site it is treated at the site. It is certainly not the preferred method, and is something we will fix.”

Ayden began five years ago trying to get funding assistance from Construction Grants and Loans with the Division of Water Quality. (DWQ).

Ayden was twice turned down for a grant for sewer line replacement, first in March 1999 and again in September 1999 when the first grant was reconsidered.

Ayden’s engineering firm, McDavid & Associates were told that Ayden was not scoring as well as other projects based on criteria established by the agency. Tripp said the engineering firm met with representatives of Construction Grants and Loans with DWQ. It was recommended that a joint grant, between the town and the Contentnea Metropolitan Sewerage District (CMSD) be applied for that would include Ayden’s replacement of sewer line and a reuse project for the CMSD.

The grant was applied for March 30, 2001 and awarded June 12, 2001 in the amount of $3 million. A total of $400,000 would be used for the CMSD project with the balance going to Ayden to replace old sewer lines down Third Street. Because of that project the state has refused to pave Third Street until the work is done.

Despite the award, however, the project has been delayed time and again. It took DWQ nine months to review the first plan comments. Because of hydro geologic concerns with

the spray irrigation field (the CMSD reuse project), there were more delays that kept Ayden from helping solve some of the CMSD’s inflow and infiltration problems.

DWQ eventually agreed in March to allow Ayden to proceed with its sewer project despite the fact the reuse project is still in limbo.

Ayden moved immediately to get the project underway. In April they authorized the receipt of bids and received bids in May. Ayden Town Manager Adam Mitchell reported last week that those bids came in $900,000 higher than expected, probably due in part to the length of time that elapsed from DWQ approval of the grant and the actual bidding of the project.

Tripp said the town will have to change the scope of the project in order to use the $2.6 million in funds that are allocated. That means less aged sewer lines will be replaced and less help to the CMSD lift station on N.C. 11.

“We’ve been working on this project for five years,” Tripp said. “We’ve always had a commitment to solve our inflow and infiltration issues. From the time we were awarded the funds it has taken two years and 8 months to go through the hoops of getting permitted. We will continue our efforts to solve these issues as quickly as the state will allow us to.”

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