Richland Flushes Openness About Sewer Plant Work

BY NICK MCCORMAC

While Richland County Council is hardly a picture of corruption — the kind of crooked
backroom-dealing politicians one sees in movies — an executive session the council held
to discuss a county-operated wastewater treatment plant begs a question:

Why did County Council conduct a closed-door meeting about a sewer plant in the
middle of a Monday afternoon?

Trying to avoid attention was never the goal, says Councilman Greg Pearce. Rather, he
says, that just happened to be the occasion the council scheduled to discuss design and
monetary challenges regarding the plant.

Perhaps, but the county is being tight lipped about precisely what those challenges are,
and so is a company Richland County is paying millions of dollars to remedy them.

The June 22 executive session brought council members together with the county’s legal
team and administrators to discuss planned improvements to the sewer plant, which is
located on the Broad River.

The would-be upgrades date back to 2006. That year, the S.C. Department of Health and
Environmental Control declared that the plant was not operating adequately and issued an
order requiring structural upgrades to the facility.

The improvements were designed to have the plant treat a larger volume of sewage at a
higher level to meet new standards DHEC had set, according to Thom Berry, a
spokesman for the agency.

County Council issued a $27 million construction contract to a local firm, Power
Engineering, to do the work. But design changes on the part of the engineers and higher
than expected costs resulted in setbacks.

In the interim, the plant is operating but not at full capacity.

“We had a timeline for all the upgrades we needed to make but there were some issues
with the developer changing design plans and that put us back a bit,” says Tony
McDonald, assistant county administrator. McDonald attributes some of the delays to a
spike in fuel costs last summer.

In a July 21 meeting, County Council approved yet another change to the design plans.
Council members said they hope it will be the last alteration before the upgrades are
completed.

Pearce says that getting too specific about the issue could compromise the county’s legal
position.
“With a big project like this it’s naive to think everything is going to be perfect, but our
executive session discussions are regarding normal issues,” he says. Should County
Council need to take action on the matter, the council will abide by the S.C. Freedom of
Information Act and do so only during open session, Pearce says.

A spokeswoman for Power Engineering declined to provide details about the project.
For its part, DHEC apparently has been sympathetic to the problems the county has
faced.
Whatever issues are at hand, they are not between County Council and DHEC, Berry
says. “We’ve been in contact with the county and understand they’re dealing with
problems not of their own doing,” he says.

An August deadline has been set to complete alterations on the plant and McDonald says
Power Engineering is on track to meet that end date.
Says Pearce, “Were there problems with the plant? Yes. Are we doing everything in our
power to move things along? Absolutely.”