Work on Greenwood’s new $33 million wastewater treatment plant is winding down, and Mayor Carolyn McAdams is getting ready to do a little celebrating.
Plans are to have a formal ribbon-cutting in mid-November, after the plant is scrubbed down and made to shine, she said.
“It’s something else,” she said.
The project began in 2011, when the state Department of Environmental Quality declared that the city’s then treatment plant could not meet the more rigorous new state wastewater discharge requirements.
McAdams was scheduled to tour the plant with Eddie Curry, the plant’s supervisor, today.
Some of the city’s cost for the plant has been offset by gradual increases in the wastewater treatment rate for Greenwood residents and businesses.
“When the taxpayers pay for a state-of-the-art wastewater treatment plant, you want to show that off,” said Greenwood City Council President Ronnie Stevenson.
The plant will soon be treating wastewater from Mississippi Valley State University, which came under the same tougher standards as the city.
“Valley is putting in sewer lines as we speak, from Valley to Greenwood,” thanks in part to a $4 million grant from the state’s Institutions of Higher Learning Board, McAdams said.
“We’re going to put Valley out of the wastewater treatment business,” she said.
McAdams said it is hoped that neighboring cities such as Itta Bena and Sidon will opt to connect to the city’s plant rather than enduring the cost and headaches of developing their own plants.
Stevenson said the four-year effort is about to pay off for the city as other communities tie in.
“It’s taken a little time. We knew it was a going to take some time,” he said.
Ward 1’s Johnny Jennings said that as other communities tie in, the costs for Greenwood residents will go down.
“By bringing in the other communities, it is going to be a godsend for them and a financial benefit for us,” he said.
• Contact Bob Darden at 581-7239 or bdarden@gwcommonwealth.com.
