Adding urgency to a hot-button issue, the state could soon ask Columbus Light & Water to shell out $15 million for facility upgrades that would increase the city”s sludge output.
CL&W Chairman Jabari O. Edwards said he could not release specifics about the upgrades, except to say that the utility was asking for an exemption from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality.
It is unknown how much sludge the upgrades to the wastewater plant would generate, he said.
With the MDEQ upgrade on the horizon, Edwards said CL&W had to plan for the future, which is why the board voted 3-2 Oct. 21 to buy 118.8 acres along Nashville Ferry Road near Shady Lane for $965,000.
“We never know what tomorrow may bring,” he said. “You don”t know what kind of infrastructure problems you”ll have or what the next big project will be.”
If the upgrades do not add sludge, the city has an estimated 20 years or so before sludge in its three wastewater lagoons reaches capacity.
New permit sought
Sheffield Construction Inc. owner Russell Sheffield has to obtain a sludge disposal permit from MDEQ before CL&W begins payments on the land.
Once CL&W receives the permit from Sheffield, the city”s two types of sludges will be tilled into the land.
Wastewater sludge, which is stored in the utility”s three lagoons, will be gradually moved to the land from the lagoons. Iron oxide sludge, which is a byproduct of processing water from deep wells, will also be taken to the land instead of to land at the Lowndes County Airport.
CL&W has been spreading the iron oxide sludge at the airport since it obtained a beneficial use permit from MDEQ.
Although city and county officials have told CL&W General Manager Todd Gale that access to the airport could be cut off soon, Lowndes County Board of Supervisors President Harry Sanders said that was not true.
“As far as I”m concerned, they could dump out there forever,” Sanders said.
Although there have been a few complaints about the sludge, County Administrator Ralph Billingsley said he would be “very surprised” if the board or city council stopped disposals.
Even if the board and city council did decide to close the jointly owned airport to CL&W, they would give the utility “plenty of time to find another place,” Sanders said.
Currently, Sheffield is about halfway through the permitting process, Edwards said.
The next step for Sheffield is to convince the Golden Triangle Regional Solid Waste Management Authority board to modify its regional solid waste plan to include his property.
The Authority”s executive board meets next on Nov. 13.
Once the regional plan is changed, the proposal goes to the MDEQ board for final approval.
The CL&W board has given Sheffield about a year to obtain the permit.
He took over the process from Ray Gore, who initially owned the land, in 2009, when the board began looking for land that could meet its sludge disposal needs.
After testing three of his four properties in the area, one met the requirements of MDEQ, Edwards said.
However, at the time, wastewater sludge was at critical capacity. So, to buy itself time, the board voted to raise lagoon levees for $364,443, which was cheaper than emptying the lagoons by several million dollars.
Another reason to go ahead with Sheffield”s land is that permits are becoming more difficult to come by, Edwards said.
With the recent BP oil spill and other incidents, the state was tightening up its environmental laws and handing out fewer permits, he continued.
In 2009, there were 29 permitted land application sites, 15 of which were inactive, according to an MDEQ report.
The report states that 29,209 dry tons of solid waste was land applied in 2009 at the 14 active sites. About 46.4 percent of the total waste was municipal wastewater sludge.
Of the counties with land application sites, the nearest is Monroe County, where Georgia Gulf Chemicals has a permit to land apply iron sludge.
”Proactive” purchase
Board members have a history of planning for the future, Edwards said, pointing to the KIOR project and the board”s A+ financial rating.
“We”ve always tried to be more proactive than reactive,” Edwards said. “To me, this (land deal) is proactive.”
Breaking a tie vote, Edwards, along with board members David Shelton and Brandy Gardner, voted to buy the land along Nashville Ferry Road near Shady Lane. Board members Jimmy Graham and Tom Sneed voted against.
Stopping the $965,000 land deal would have wasted the two taxpayer-funded appraisals, which together cost more than $1,800, and the $5,000 option the utility took on the property, Edwards said.
Stephen Holcombe, of Appraisal Service, appraised the land June 15 at $1,875,000. He arrived at his conclusion, he said, by comparing the cost of buying land to the cost of emptying the lagoons and taking them to West Point for disposal.
He estimated the total cost of the latter option at almost $2.2 million, according to the appraisal.
“What I tried to do,” Holcombe explained, “was make some reasonable assumptions.”
Steward Stafford, of Rhett Real Estate, who did not compare costs of taking sludge to West Point, estimated the land was worth $565,000 on Sept. 10.
Both appraisers said the issue was difficult to judge because purchasing land for sludge disposal was rare in the open market.
“There”s no textbook on valuing this type of property in Mississippi,” Stafford said. “If there was, I would have read it a couple times.”
The two appraisals considered the use value of the land, which is standard practice in certain cases, said Mississippi Real Estate Commission Deputy Director Mike McGee.
Using hypothetical conditions and making extreme assumptions to arrive at a value is acceptable, although appraisers must back up their conclusions with data, McGee said.
Board member” ties
The issue has called into question the business relationships of three of the board members.
Shelton has had business ties to landowner Russell Sheffield, of Sheffield Construction, while Tom Sneed and Jimmy Graham work with Ronnie West, of West Brothers Construction, whose 115-acre proposal was rejected by the board.
During the October board meeting, Graham was actually on a hunting trip with West, his friend since grade school and current business partner.
Graham said their friendship did not affect his vote, as he had told the board he would vote against “any land purchase at any price.”
“I don”t think we need the land and I was going to vote against it at any price,” Graham added.
Graham”s views have apparently changed since March, when he made the motion to retain the $5,000 option on Sheffield”s property.
Sneed, who has worked as a construction manager with West Brothers Construction for three or four years, said he was not against buying Sheffield”s land, but wanted to take time to look over options.
“I wanted more time to investigate and, like I said previously, I thought we had more pressing needs than the purchase of land right now,” he said.
More pressing needs like grinder pumps that may have to be upgraded soon and the possible MDEQ upgrade requirement.
Both Sneed and Graham would have had to recuse themselves if the vote had been about West”s property.
Shelton did not return several calls made during the last two weeks seeking comment.
Edwards said that if board members, who were picked from the business community, did not do business with people they know, they could not do business at all.
“We would not be able to do business with people in Columbus,” he added.
To make sure the board was following correct procedure, Edwards said he had board attorney, state Rep. Jeff Smith, contact the attorney general”s office.
“We”ve always tried to follow the letter of the law,” Edwards added.
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