As part of a municipal consent decree with the United States government, officials from the City of Hattiesburg are putting together a Supplemental Environmental Project, which is designed to reduce extraneous flows entering the Wastewater Collection and Transmission System in certain areas of the city which may have defective residential lateral sewer lines.
That project was discussed at a recent Hattiesburg City Council meeting, where Marybeth Bergin, who serves as Hattiesburg’s director of Transportation and Engineering, said the plan will help officials prevent and fix issues such as broken underground pipes, missing caps, deteriorated pipes and manholes, and root intrusions.
“Today, we’ve not done any work on private property, and only more recently have we been doing sewer service replacements, but only up to the cleanout (valves),” Bergin said. “So this program is going to allow us to go onto private property and make those replacements all the way up to the home.”
The Supplemental Environmental Project will focus on two distinct areas of the city: Priority Area 1 and Priority Area 2.
Priority Area one is comprised of residential areas as far west as Kensington Drive and as far south as James Street, while running north up to around Mable Street. Eastward, the project stretches past Gulfport Street toward the city’s wastewater lagoons.
Priority Area 2 goes past Melba Avenue to the west, and cuts back east toward the Hercules plant before turning north again past Old Highway 42. The area also goes just south of East Hardy Street (or River Avenue) and runs east to the lagoons.
“(We’re only doing) residential properties – even if it’s zoned business, if it’s used as a residential property, that’s what we’re targeting,” Bergin said. “Obviously, we want to make sure that it’s either broken or damaged underneath to be replaced; we’re not going to replace them just because somebody wants it replaced.
“There will be a process for us to figure out what needs to be done, and also, the homeowners have to be eligible. The way our program is written right now, you have to be the owner, and you have to meet low-to-moderate income requirements.”
After an application is submitted to the engineering department, a pre-inspection of sewer service will be conducted, and a third-party agreement will be executed by the owner, contractor and city. A work order will be issued to the contractor to perform repairs before the final inspection and contractor payment are settled.
City officials will solicit for qualified contractors to perform the repair work.
“This is going to be an opportunity for plumbers in the area to participate in the program,” Bergin said. “So we’re going to have (Requests for Quotes) for qualified plumbers to help us do this work – we’re not looking to do it in-house, and we’re not necessarily looking for the contractors that do our work on the mains to do that either.
“We want them to keep doing that work, because we need that to keep going. This is going to be for the small plumbers in town that can help us get that work done. We’ll have a list of multiple plumbers selected, so we can get everything done throughout the program.”
Bergin said officials will not prioritize one area over the other when it comes to getting the work done.
“Anyone from Priority Area 1 or 2 is treated equally,” she said. “We’re not trying to focus on 1 or 2; it’s all priority areas.”
Officials will issue the aforementioned RFQs and hold public awareness campaigns in the priority areas, and the program documents will be presented to council for adoption at the February 20 meeting.
