CHANDLER — The City Council here has approved a resolution to issue $1.3 million in certificates of obligation to pay for improvements to Chandler’s wastewater treatment plant.

Certificates of obligation are bonds issued without voter approval. Although it could ultimately cost Chandler $2.7 million to upgrade portions of its wastewater treatment plant, the most pressing needs at the site are likely to require as little as $900,000.

City officials are still weighing their options for financing the work, which include raising ad valorem taxes or utility rates, city administrator Jim Moffeit said.

The plant off Noonday Road operates with clarifier, oxidation ditch, screener, chlorine-contact chamber and drying bed. The city wants to add a second clarifier so that one can continue to run while work is performed on the other.

The single clarifier runs 24 hours a day, making it impossible for workers to perform maintenance on it.

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

In areas where that is not possible, five lift stations pump waste to the plant.

Once waste water is treated through a four-step process, the clean water is redistributed into Lake Palestine.

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

Chandler could use certificates of obligation or other revenue sources to finance the project.