As part of a list of actions to reduce the risk of future spills, the funds will pay $17,500 of legal services and $89,000 for maintenance and construction engineering. The funds also will pay for $35,000 of fines and penalties for sewer spills.
Earlier this month, the city of Thomasville said it would hire Pease and Associates Consulting Engineers to analyze the city’s sewer collection system and prioritize rehabilitation needs. The city also hired Brown and Caldwell, an environmental consulting firm, to review city records and other data to investigate the size, causes, duration and any environmental impact, including any impact to High Rock Lake and its tributaries. The law firm of Brooks Pierce also will conduct an investigation into the handling of the spill.
Before the City Council voted on the appropriations, City Manager Kelly Craver and City Attorney Paul Mitchell described why the city has decided to put the plan in action.
“It is through this multifaceted approach the city strives to find the truth in this manner, improve the performance of our employees and improve the sewer collection system,” Craver said. “In the end, the goal is to prevent the likelihood of any event of this nature from occurring again.”
“As the manager has just advised you, from the outset we felt the need to hire outside independent consultants of the very first rank because we felt like with all the allegations that we had been less candid with the public in underreporting the spill,” Mitchell added. “We felt like if we were the citizens of Thomasville or residents of High Rock Lake, we would be much more confident (with) information coming from an outside consultant.”
Mitchell, who said he lives on the Yadkin River, and Craver shared data from samples taken on High Rock Lake. According to Mitchell, samples taken by the Yadkin River/Pee-Dee River Basin Authority and Craver, who tested the water himself on a Sea-Doo, indicated that High Rock Lake’s water met all environmental standards.
The untreated wastewater spill, which began July 13 and ended Aug. 4, spilled 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.
dignasiak@hpe.com | 888-3657
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