According to City Manager Kelly Craver, the City Council will consider appropriating $17,500 for legal services, $89,000 for maintenance and construction engineering and $35,000 for waste treatment fines and penalties.
The appropriations totaling $141,500 are part of a list of actions the city of Thomasville recently announced to reduce the risk of future spills.
“We are in the midst of a very thorough and careful investigation,” Craver said. “We’ve hired the appropriate experts to help us determine and evaluate the facts, so we will know what happened. Then we can go forward from here.”
According to the plan, the city plans to hire Pease and Associates Consulting Engineers to analyze the city’s sewer collection system and prioritize the immediate, short-term and long-term rehabilitation needs. The city also has hired Brown and Caldwell, an environmental consulting firm, to review city records and other data to investigate the causes, duration, and size of the spill and any environmental impact, including any impact to High Rock Lake and its tributaries.
The city has hired the law firm of Brooks Pierce to conduct an investigation of the handling of the spill.
The untreated wastewater spill, which began July 13 and ended Aug. 4, spillled into North Hamby Creek in the Yadkin/Pee Dee River Basin, which flows into High Rock Lake. City officials have said the spill happened as a result of a collapsed manhole, possibly during or after a rainstorm on July 13.
Yadkin Riverkeeper Dean Naujoks initiated a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency criminal investigation after he received a tip from a Thomasville Wastewater Treatment Plant employee who claimed plant officials intentionally underreported the spill totals to the media.
According to Craver, the EPA made Thomasville employees recalculate an amount of 385,000 gallons of raw sewage that was initially reported by the city Aug. 4 to the Division of Water Quality.
Dean Lambeth, the city’s maintenance and construction superintendent, resigned Sept. 21. Craver said Lambeth had reasonable enough knowledge to investigate the spill after receiving two phone calls about a potential spill on July 31. Lambeth waited until Aug. 3 to investigate the spill, according to the city manager.
dignasiak@hpe.com | 888-3657
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