CHANDLER — Starting in July, septic companies will face a one-cent increase for dumping raw sewage at the Chandler Wastewater Treatment Plant after the City Council decided the strain on roads has become significant, city administrator Jim Moffeit said.

“The problem has been the heavy trucks are a havoc on the roads. The council decided to allow them to continue to dump and increase the rate from three cents a gallon to four cents a gallon. We will watch the streets over the next 12 months.”

Since October 2010, 11 companies have dumped more than 1 million gallons of waste at the plant at a cost of over $37,141, records show.

The plant is permitted by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to treat 500,000 gallons of waste water per day.

Installing a second clarifi er would increase production at the plant and allow the city to perform maintenance on one clarifier while the other remains undisturbed.

Moffeit said waste dumped by septic companies is not immediately distributed into the plant’s treatment system.

“It is not put directly into the sewer plant. We have a lagoon, and it goes there first.”

The Noonday Road plant, the city’s second treatment facility, was built in the 1980s. It relies primarily on gravity-force sewer mains to deliver waste.

Chandler’s financial advisor is RBC Wealth Management of San Antonio.