Opponents pack courthouse for Sewer Plant hearing

CHATTANOOGA (WDEF) – Hamilton County Commissioners heard from both sides on whether a WWTA sewage plant should be built in Ooltewah.

It was standing room only at the Hamilton County Commission meeting on Wednesday.
Many people attending were wearing stickers with a message saying, “No sewage plant on Mahan Gap Road.”

Residents who live right near the proposed WWTA sewage treatment plant say they’ve been told it would cost more to move it elsewhere.

“Is my family, is my life not worth twenty million dollars. I don’t want to sell my house. It is more than a house. It is what I have built it is my future,” Duane Kanerva said.

WWTA representatives first presented their case to commissioners.

“We incorporate safety into our design early on. So those are the things we look at is building mitigation plans, backup plans, redundancy, redundant equipment, redundant power sources,” Scott McDonald said.

They showed drown footage of the proposed site.

“We don’t expect there to be an impact to anybody. But it’s been argued, or it’s conceivably an impact to a few property owners. I wanted y’all to know that we reached out to those folks to start talking to them about potentially buying their property to see if they were interested in doing that,” said Mark Harrison, the Hamilton County WWTA director.

Those against the project talked about how the Murfreesboro plant was built before development.

“The city having to move out towards the sewage plant. The plant was there first. Our community is not given the same choice,” said Brent Smith, with North Hamilton County United for Responsible Growth.

They offered suggestions for other locations.

“Our idea is invest in the main line, take the sewer up to Meigs County. We know we have a landowner that is willing. We talked to developers, they love this idea. If you invest into a main line in Meigs County, you take advantage of future known growth,” Smith said.

Residents hope the plan doesn’t go through.

“Move the plant where their aren’t any houses,” Kanerva said.

The Commission plans on voting on the proposal next week.