By Staff
Thomas Tingle
Record Managing Editor
Madison's new raw sewage treatment plant is up and running.
It also means that Madison residents may pay less in their sewer bills to have its raw sewage treated locally than by Huntsville.
Construction of the $22 million plant, located on Landess Circle, began on May 9, 2001. It went on line at 40 percent capacity on Feb. 10 and at 60 percent capacity on Feb. 14. MidSouth Industrial Construction in the town of Valley built the plant.
Whitey Bressette, general manager of the Water and Wastewater Board, said the plant has a capacity to treat as much as six million gallons of raw sewage each day. Madison had been pumping more than three million gallons of raw sewage into Huntsville's plant before the switch was made.
"The benefits to Madison customers, as well as the Water and Wastewater Board, in having this plant is the fact that sewer costs, and therefore rates to be charged to the customers, will be controlled by us," Bressette said.
To build the plant, the board borrowed the entire amount from the Sewer State Revolving Fund – a 20-year bond with a 2.87 percent interest rate.
"There is room for expansion to this plant," Bressette said. "We have approximately 49.73 acres and certain aspects of the plant and its collection piping and discharge piping have been built to allow for future expansion."
Bressette said the existing capacity of the plant would accommodate growth of Madison to a population of 60,000 residents, including new commercial and industrial growth.