An engineer says needed upgrades to Hogansville’s sewage plant could cost between $8.5 million and $8.7 million.

One phased approach proposed actually could wind up costing the city more: the first phase was estimated to cost between $4.5 million and $4.9 million, the second phase could cost up to $5 million.

“There may be other options,” City Councilman Jack Leidner said. “We’re still looking.”

The costs – part of which could come in the form of grants – would be on top of $5.5 million the city still owes on its sewage land application system constructed in 1991. Engineers said last week that system is at its capacity and refurbishing it would require the city to buy more land just to keep that capacity. It can’t accommodate future growth.

“How much money do you want to invest in a system that will only get you so far?” asked City Manager Bill Stankiewicz.

Because of conditions at the sprayfield, 35 of its 204 acres can’t even be used for sewage application.

The city’s sewage plant originally was built in the 1950s and has 0.65 million gallons a day in capacity with the 1991 land application system. The proposed upgrades would provide 1 million gallons a day in sewer treatment capacity, with a “foundation for expansion” from there, Stankiewicz said.

Tyler Hewitt, an engineer with In-fratec Consultants, said Hogansville still is under a consent order from the state Environmental Protection Division from 2002. The state hasn’t fined the city for deficiencies because most of the problems were addressed after the order was given.

However, the plant still has problems, most recently a 600,000-gallon spill into Yellow Jacket Creek on Dec. 11, which officials blamed on infiltration and old equipment. Stankie-wicz said after the spill that the plant would continue to have issues until the upgrades were made.

“We don’t want to get into a situation like we did with our water plant where we don’t have options,” he said.

Hogansville had planned to replace its water plant using special-purpose local-option sales tax money, but a study earlier this year showed the project was cost-prohibitive. The city instead will abandon the water plant by February and get its supply from LaGrange and Coweta County.

City Council will need to make a decision relatively quickly, the EPD issued a 3 million gallon a day “wasteload allocation” permit in August. The permit, which would allow Hogansville to discharge up to that much treated wastewater into Yellow Jacket Creek, is valid for only a year. The city doesn’t need to have the upgrades done in that time, but will have to have a solid plan in place.

Mayor Jimmy Jackson wasn’t pleased with the idea of adding to the $5.5 million in debt the city already has, although most other council members agreed something must be done.

“If we start getting fined, we’ll just be throwing money away,” Councilwoman Jean Crocker said.

Jennifer Shrader may be reached at jshrader@lagrangenews.com or at (706) 884-7311, Ext. 236.