Cave Spring aims to start sewer improvement project in April
Cave Spring officials are wary but hopeful that a sewer improvement project will begin next month after the city council awarded the construction bid to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
A nearly $5 million project, partly funded by the 2017 special purpose, local option sales tax, has officially been in the works for the past year as City Council members have approved loans and grants for the project.
At their Tuesday meeting, they approved resolutions for the USDA to take over the project, in the amount of $2.37 million. Once it’s validated by the Floyd County Superior Court, work is expected to start within 45 days, according to Cave Spring Mayor Rob Ware.
The sewer project came about after the Georgia Department of Natural Resources cited the city for sewer violations as far back as March 2018.
Put simply, the city has leaky sewer lines. The issues are caused by serious inflow and infiltration problems at the city’s waste treatment plant on
Mill Street.
“Every time it rains, it floods out the sewer plant,” Ware said.
Ware said that potential fines from EPD total more than $10,100.
But since the city is addressing the issue, the state is giving it credit for what it has already spent, and will soon spend, in lieu of collecting the fines.
Once the upgrades begin, they’ll do smoke treatments to expose breaks in the sewer line, followed by cameras to explore the sewers to identify broken pipes and other things creating leaks.
“Once we identify these problems, we’ll either line the pipes with a chemical liner or completely replace the pipes,” Ware said.
The project will also include manhole repairs around the town, which are mostly brick and mortar. Over the years, the cement has deteriorated, allowing more rainwater to get into the sewer system.
Along with the system upgrades, the treatment plant will have its own renovations and have a redesign upgrade.
Ware estimates that the whole project will take approximately a year to complete.