The city of Hogansville is considering two options for its aging wastewater treatment plant — expansion, or pumping wastewater to a nearby city.

The Hogansville City Council was presented with two options by Chris Poje of Turnipseed Engineers during last week’s council meeting.

The city can either pay for additions to the city’s current water pollution control plant, or pump to a nearby city, such as LaGrange. Turnipseed provided a cost estimate for both options, using LaGrange as an example city to pump the wastewater.

“We have to do something with that sewage. We either have to under state mandate expand that current facility and treat it,” said Hogansville city manager David Milliron. “We have a very old, aging plant that uses sprayfield technology and that’s not the best long-term solution or we have to interconnect to LaGrange or some other entity. LaGrange would make the most sense and in doing so we would pay the upfront cost to put in that infrastructure and then the ongoing cost to have them treat all that sewage.”

Milliron said if a decision is not made by Dec. 20, the entire project will have to be put back out for bid.

“The contractor has been in contact with the suppliers and the cost to do the plan will go up, the materials will go up, after the new year,” Milliron said. “Ultimately, you are talking about additional costs.”

The estimated project cost to upgrade Hogansville’s current wastewater plant is $8,688,195.

To pump wastewater to LaGrange, it would cost an estimated $8,257,500 in project costs, with most of that being construction work. Other costs include an inspection, survey and interest.

“When you look apples to apples, there’s not a lot of gap there in what is the most affordable, cost effective way to do this,” Milliron said. “On the interconnect, there are some big question marks, especially when you are talking about right of way, elevations, lift stations. The interconnect to LaGrange isn’t as fully vetted.”

Milliron said the expansion of the plant has already been put out for bid, so the city knows what the cost will be. Most of the funding would be available through USDA loans and from Merriwether County, which pumps wastewater from its industrial park to Hogansville.

“As that industrial park and that entire corridor expands, we will need the capacity to treat the sewage,” Milliron said.

The second option, pumping wastewater to LaGrange or a nearby city, has not been as researched at this point, Milliron said. It was provided as an alternative option, so that the council could look at an alternative solution. The council is expected to discuss the plant during its upcoming meetings in December.