County leaders scramble over Ford
Sewers could prove a barrier to ‘regionalism’
Memphis had just told suburban Shelby County leaders about its expensive and expansive plans to fix its sewer system within Memphis city limits.
But those Shelby County leaders wanted to know what sewer service Memphis could provide to accommodate further suburban growth. The city’s two wastewater treatment plants are among the largest in the state and, to some, are ready-made pieces of infrastructure to treat sewage from outside Memphis — the plants have for years.
Harold Byrd, the head of the Shelby County Chamber Alliance, a group of suburban chambers of commerce, asked Memphis Public Works Director Robert Knecht Thursday morning what could be done regionally to capitalize on the growth promised by Ford’s Blue Oval City plant.
“We want to have a solution to this because I would hate to be not being able to capitalize on this growth,” said Byrd, a founder and president of Bank of Bartlett.
The translation: What can Memphis do to facilitate development outside its borders with expanding sewer capacity.
“We need to have better data,” Knecht replied. “You don’t want to give away capacity that you’re going to need . ... The city doesn’t gain any benefit.”
The exchange occurred during the Shelby County Joint Economic Development Committee meeting Thursday morning. The meetings of an obscure public body offer a quarterly opportunity for local leaders to talk about economic development.
Gwynn Fisher, who runs economic development in the Memphis region for the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development, told the assembled leaders that they needed to get creative and find sewer capacity if they wanted to capitalize on the growth that could come with Ford. She said other communities nearby were working together on sewer capacity.
At that point, Bartlett Mayor Keith Mcdonald said, “Another way to put that is regionalism in sewers.”
Memphis is in the midst of infrastructure retrenchment
The request for Memphis’ aid and a regional approach to sewers comes at a time when the city is in the midst of infrastructure retrenchment. It has spent years weaning off the Shelby County and Mississippi suburbs off of its sewer system.
Over time, the Shelby County suburbs have built their own wastewater treatment plants to accommodate their residential growth. Memphis and its Mississippi suburbs are headed to trial in a lawsuit over whether Memphis can stop treating sewage from across state lines when an agreement between it and the Mississippi suburbs runs out next year.
Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland and his administration are focused on providing infrastructure service within city limits and are skeptical of the benefit Memphis would accrue by extending further service on the city’s dime.
“What it comes down to what do to what degree is any municipality going to be part of that regionalism? Because, again, every city wants to grow. Every city wants to look at its future path. Sewers is a big discussion point right now because you have to have the capacity to serve your growth,” Knecht said in an interview
Knecht mentioned the issues with the Horn Lake Basin Interceptor District — the entity that represents the Desoto County suburbs.
“Horn Lake, we’ve made a decision that that contract expires we don’t want to renew because look at how much growth Desoto County has had to the detriment of Memphis. So I think that that was a decision that made sense for Memphis because we have to focus on our growth and our needs,” Knecht said.
Knecht addressed the desire for regionalism during the interview and appeared as noncommittal to future sewer regionalism as he had when pressed by suburban leaders a few minutes before.
“I think Memphis .... since we’re the biggest part of this, and we have so much growth that we want to ensure we can manage, we have to make that decision,” Knecht said.
Byrd, who leads the suburban chamber alliance, said in an interview that Ford could change how the whole region develops from the plant’s planned Haywood County site stretching west across the Mississippi River.
My own feeling is that the governmental leaders and Mayor Strickland’s operational team, they want to put all the other cities and county government on notice that we all have to come together on this,” Byrd said. “I would like to see recognition by the city -- a more focused enlightenment if you will -- of what this would mean.. if we get this amount of growth...”
Samuel Hardiman covers Memphis city government and politics for The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached by email at samuel.hardiman@commercialappeal.com or followed on Twitter at @samhardiman