The Celina Board of Mayor and Aldermen Tuesday night approved purchasing special bags to remove some 12,000 tons of sludge from the sewer plant.
The city and TDEC have entered into a consent order to fix issues at the sewer plant. As part of the order, sludge removal needs to be done by the end of August in three lagoons. Mayor Luke Collins said city needs to purchase gep-textile bags to remove the sludge.
“They cost, I believe, around $100,000,” Collins said. “And I know [Auditor John Poole] will tell us anything over $25,000 needs to be bid out. Our attorney says since this is an emergency situation, we can get these bags that [Jason Henderson] has found for $100,000.”
The emergency authorization expedites the purchasing by bypassing the traditional bid process. Collins said the bags will be purchased with ARP grant funding.
Collins said moving forward with this resolution was the city’s way of fixing the issue on its own. Sewer Treatment Plant Operator Jason Hamilton said the bags could arrive in Celina quickly, assuming there are no hold ups in shipping.
Hamilton said the bags are 45 feet by 100 feet and perforated, so the sludge can dry off once it is removed.
Hamilton said there has never been a sludge removal project in the sewer’s 40 year existence, which has caused it to run improperly.
Hamilton said once the bagged sludge dries out, the city will have to figure out how they want to dispose of it. He said one of the options is to put the sludge in a landfill, which is expensive. Another option is selling ot donating it to local farmers.
“It’s as good a fertilizer as it gets,” Hamilton said. “This dredge will allow us to get all the needles and all the stuff like that out of it. It’s fertilized, it’s organic. It’s fertilized just the way it is, and people do it all over the country.”
Hamilton said the sludge removal process will need to be done again in the future. He said that getting the large scale work done now will help the city better plan for future sludge removals.
“We’ve got to, in three to five years, look at cleaning these out again,” Hamilton said. “By doing it this way, we’re going to have a leg up. Everything’s going to be done in three to five years when we have to do it again. And maybe do one pond instead of three ponds and get them on a schedule.”
Collins and Vice Mayor Micheal Bowles decided to amend some language in the resolution to ensure the emergency authorization and labor were the only things included.
The Board agreed that since sludge removal was the only pressing deadline, they would have enough time to bid out other parts of the project.
According to Hamilton, some equipment could be leased for the project, including a dredge. The board also heard suggestions on cutting labor costs, such as assigning employees from other projects to the sewer plant once their current projects wrap up.
The resolution was approved 3-0. Hamilton said he expects crews to get to work on sludge removal as soon as possible, and they will be working around the clock to meet the deadline.
