State loan helps to fund sewer system expansion

The Warm Springs Public Service District recently closed on a $3 million loan from the W.Va. Department of Environmental Protection's Clean Water State Revolving Fund.

The loan carries no interest and will be repaid over a 30-year period. The total project cost is over $15 million. The West Virginia Infrastructure and Jobs Development Council has provided the balance of the funding.

The money will be used to replace the 400,000-gallons-per-day existing wastewater treatment plant with one that can treat 1.74 million gallons-per-day. Two existing pump stations will also be replaced with a gravity interceptor.

The sewer system is under a consent decree to upgrade its plant in order to comply with the effluent limits contained in its National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit. The existing collection system is aged and has severe inflow and infiltration problems that the sewer district has been working to correct for the past few years.

In addition, the wastewater collection system will be extended to serve 255 new customers. The soils in the area are severely limited for use as septic tank drain fields and many of the septic systems are failing, according to the Department of Environmental Protection.

Water quality will be improved in Warm Springs Run, a tributary of the Potomac River, as a result of this project.

The Warm Springs Sewer System serves about 1,247 customers. Completion of this project should be completed in 2008. The contractors are Beitzel Corporation of Grantsville, Md. and Glenn Johnston, Inc. of McKeesport, Pa.