OKTIBBEHA COUNTY — A lawsuit mediation between East Oktibbeha Wastewater District and Mississippi State University will not be open for public eyes.
The lawsuit, filed by MSU on Jan. 23, alleges the wastewater district owes more than $500,000 for usage of MSU’s pumping stations to deliver the district’s untreated wastewater to Starkville facilities for treatment.
The Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors tasked board attorney Rob Roberson with organizing a meeting to find out what was going on, after the district’s manager, Dwight Prisock, told the board that the district’s planned expansion on Highway 128 from Hickory Grove Road toward the east to Triangle Drywall Supply was on hold. The county has committed American Rescue Plan Act funds to that project.
The city is studying its water and wastewater facilities and is not open to adding to its wastewater capacity until that study is complete.
Prisock needs the city’s approval before he can submit the expansion plans to the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality for final approval.
A day after Prisock’s appearance before the board of supervisors, MSU filed its lawsuit.
Roberson told The Dispatch following Monday’s board meeting that the scheduled mediation will be held in two weeks at minimum, though a date has not been set.
He said representatives from MSU preferred to avoid having the mediation in public, so it was decided that only one supervisor would attend the meeting. Roberson said it has not been determined which of the five supervisors would fill that spot.
“This would be settlement-type (discussion), putting them in a situation of being able to have a settlement that is advantageous to everybody – the university, the county, the sewer district and the city,” Roberson said. “…They need to have the ability to mediate and to say some things that need to be said that gets a solution on the table.”
Other projected attendees include Prisock, a representative from the office of Northern District Public Service Commissioner Chris Brown, and Starkville Mayor Lynn Spruill.
East Oktibbeha Wastewater District serves about 30% of the rural portion of the county. Because it has no wastewater treatment facilities of its own, it entered into an agreement with MSU and the city of Starkville more than a decade ago to gain access to Starkville’s treatment facilities. The university bills the district for that service, but alleges in its lawsuit that the district has been delinquent on payments since 2017.
Kevin Edwards is news editor and reports on Starkville and Oktibbeha County government.
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