Sewer Capacity and Allocation

Context

City sewer capacity is constrained in several sewer sheds. The Pilot area is over-allocated with no new flow approved. East Davidson has approved 22 projects with three on hold for not meeting the allocation policy, and Raines Road is being monitored (under a month of data) but looks able to serve all requests so far, mainly single-family. Morgan Huffman, Director of Public Utilities, said both the water and wastewater plants are rated 6 MGD but run about 2.25 to 2.5 MGD (water) and 2.1 to 2.25 MGD (wastewater), the water plant is about 100 years old and landlocked, and the key limits are force mains at the Pilot, East Davidson and North Side pump stations. Details come from auto-captions.

Status

As of August 4, 2026 an engineer projected about 90 days for a Pilot-area capacity analysis, then roughly 60 days of preliminary drawings and 30 days of construction drawings, so 7 to 9 months before financing could be sought. Realistic timelines for the main projects are 3 to 10 years. Funding has historically been the clean water state revolving fund; the rate study (Willdan Financial Services) is done every five years and was said to be due this year. Staff advice to council was to lobby the state for far more water and sewer funding, and out-of-city rate structures may be limited by new legislation. See also Sewer Asset Inventory and Assessment Grant.

Log

• 2026-08-04 - Public Services Committee - Morgan Huffman answered five written questions: capacity, bottlenecks, timeline (3 to 10 years), funding and recommended actions.