At the Aug. 28 board meeting of the Sewanee Utility District of Franklin and Marion Counties (SUD), manager Ben Beavers sought the board’s input on an offer by the Tennessee Healthy Watershed Initiative to write a grant on SUD’s behalf to finance construction of a pilot wetlands at SUD’s wastewater treatment plant. The University of the South and University of Georgia recently collaborated on developing a feasibility and design study for a small constructed wetlands at the wastewater treatment plant.
The goal of the pilot wetlands would be to provide data supporting the improved water quality and cost effectiveness of replacing wastewater spray fields (SUD’s present wastewater treatment method) with a constructed wetlands system. The estimated cost of the pilot project is $350,000, and the maximum anticipated funding from the grant would be $200,000. Beavers stressed that accepting Tennessee Healthy Watershed Initiative’s offer to write the grant would not put SUD under obligation to accept any grant money offered or to make a financial contribution to the project. Funders for Initiative projects are the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, the Nature Conservancy, Tennessee Valley Authority and West Tennessee River Basin Authority. The board voted to support the grant-writing process, with the understanding that no long range commitment was involved.
SUD also hosted an open house at the new water treatment plant. In a dedication ceremony for the facility, SUD Board President Cliff Huffman presented a plaque of appreciation to Doug Cameron, who served as president throughout the design, engineering and construction process which began in 2008. Visitors to the new water plant enjoyed a picnic supper
featuring barbecue and coleslaw and had an opportunity to tour the facility with James Smartt , water plant superintendent.
The next meeting of the SUD board of commissioners is 5 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 25, at the SUD office.
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