Residents of the Wildwood Subdivision got a chance to see what their monthly bill is contributing to Thursday afternoon.
Late last year a representative with the Wildwood Homeowners Association presented a case to the Pearl River County Utility Authority Board of Trustees to be charged for actual usage. Residents in that subdivision are being charged a flat rate of $35.75 because actual usage numbers have been unavailable from the subdivision’s water provider.
But this week, two residents came out to see the work the Utility Authority put into the wastewater lagoon that serves the residents. Utility Authority Executive Director Ray Scott said when the agency took ownership of the lagoon, it was nearly full. That lagoon was installed when the subdivision was established. With no drip field, the lagoon was without a method to discharge the wastewater.
Through $500,000 in improvements performed by the Utility Authority, the lagoon is now able to treat up to 400,000 gallons of wastewater per day. Now the lagoon will continuously discharge water to one of four drip fields, maintaining the water level. There are currently 96 homes in the 1,600 acre subdivision, and Utility Authority engineer Vernon Moore estimates the current system can handle another four houses. But the eight-acre facility has room to grow as the subdivision grows.
After the tour, the Board held its monthly meeting at the wastewater treatment facility in Picayune.
Scott said the agency’s financial reports state cash flow came in about $2,000 less than budgeted over the month, with $337,000 in revenue. He attributed the shortage to sewage collections being less than expected from Hide-A-Way Lake and Millard.
As for expenses, Scott said that $51,000 was spent to conduct smoke tests so far this fiscal year. Operations Director Allen Howe said $28,500 was recently spent to conduct repairs to sewer lines that were 10 or more feet deep. Additionally a lightning strike at the Highway 43 North well caused electrical damage to the gate and pumps that required repairs.
The Board is also gearing up for another round of sewer system repairs within the city of Picayune. Moore said the priority is Westchester Subdivision, since that system was installed in the 1960s and most of the pipes are made of either clay or concrete. Additionally that system only has 9,000 feet of sewer line, one of the smallest systems in the city. For comparison, Moore said basin 6 entailed 50,000 feet of pipe.
Howe said Ponderosa will most likely be the second most important system to rehabilitate.
In order to determine which system to fix first, engineers and employees used the past seven years of reports and repairs to create a top ten list.
The next meeting of the Board will be March 16. The time of the Board’s meetings has been permanently changed to 2:30 p.m.