Colonial Estates sewer project snags federal funding
TUPELO — In a bid to increase sewer capacity in west Tupelo, the city obtained funding from the state to upgrade a vital piece of equipment in the area that officials say has been outgrown.
The Tupelo City Council voted unanimously among present member to approve a contract between the city and the Mississippi Development Authority for a $303,447 Appalachian Regional Commission grant to upgrade the Colonial Estates lift station during a Tuesday evening meeting.
“We are hitting it at the right time to get it done…. There are houses going up everywhere over there,” Tupelo Water & Light Director Johnny Timmons said, noting that the station was perfect when the area was first annexed, but years of growth and age have made it obsolete.
A lift station is a facility for sewage that does what the name implies, lifting waste water to higher elevations. West Tupelo has been an area booming with residential and commercial development, and Timmons said with that growth comes a need to increase capacity.
According to information provided by the city, the lift station has a 657 gallon per minute capacity that pushes wastewater through 14,524 feet of sewer line. The station has become “unreliable” because of the growth in the area, as the station not only takes flow from Colonial Estates Road, where it is located, but most of the west end of town. The upgrades will rehabilitate and increase capacity significantly, Timmons said.
The grant is a 50% match with the city furnishing the other half of the total cost, bringing it up to $606,894. With this funding secured, the city hopes to bid on the project soon and have the upgrades complete in eight to nine months, Timmons said.
Like many of Water & Light’s projects, Timmons said equipment and part delivery is the hardest part of the task, with parts so scarce that it can take months or up to a year to get. A pump station in Haven Acres, he said, was stalled by four months while the department waits for parts.
