Jackson approves sewer-flow study with eye on future upgrades

The city of Jackson soon will see the first major update to its wastewater-facility plan since 1998 after the board of aldermen approved a sewer-flow study during Monday night’s meeting.

“The purpose of this is to look at the wastewater treatment plant and the collection system,” said Kent Peetz, Jackson’s director of wastewater utilities. “To come up with a facilities plan, you have to look into the future 20 years or so and say, ‘These are the things coming up that are what we need to focus on to improve our utilities.’”

The city approved more than $17,000 for the study, which will be conducted by RJN Group Inc. of St. Louis.

The study will assess wastewater-flow levels at four sites, one on each side of Hubble Creek and Goose Creek.

Peetz said the facility plan would inform the city’s plans about future upgrades to the current wastewater-treatment facility.

“That facility was built in 1989,” Peetz said. “So it’s really time to start looking at what do we need to work on to make that plant more current after 27 years.”

Also approved during Monday’s meeting were plans to replace a failing manhole at South Hope Street and East Jefferson Street, as well as $19,000 for a citywide manhole-rehabilitation project.

“The rehabilitation project is something that we have to go out and do every year as part of regular maintenance,” Peetz said. “We’ve got over 100 miles of sewer lines to maintain, so we’ve identified the ones that have bad joints, and we’ll be sealing them.”

While the manhole-replacement project will cause traffic detours, the manholes scheduled for rehabilitation are not in roadways and will not cause traffic delays, Peetz said.

“There’s a lot of things on the horizon for the wastewater management in Jackson,” he said.

tgraef@semissourian.com

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