If this lone clarifier at Chandler’s wastewater treatment plant fails, officials say, the cost to the city and its residents could be substantial. File Photo The Chandler City Council was scheduled on Tuesday to continue with its intention to issue certifcates of obligation or approve a resolution to use revenue bonds to pay for improvements to its wastewater treatment plant.

“I don’t see that I’ve got a choice but to do what’s necessary to ensure that facility is working properly,” council member Gene Giger said. “If it fails, it’s going to cost $3 million to $5 million.”

After officials approved a resolution in July, the city was scheduled to issue the certificates during a meeting on Tuesday. But a petition signed by 221 Chandler residents and filed by Howard Taliaferro to block the issuance without a bond election has forced the city to rethink how it should fi- nance the construction of a second clarifer and other work at the treatment plant.

“It’s got to be built,” council member Don Daniell said. “It’s not about what I think should be done; it’s about what has to be done. If our only clarifer goes out, people are going to have a hard time flushing their toilets. It’s not an option of whether we do or whether we don’t. Something has got to be done.”

The most critical needs at the treatment plant — installing a second clarifi er and repairing a lift station — are expected to cost about $900,000. Other work related to those projects, and expenses such as legal and engineering fees, could raise costs by at least another $100,000.

A December report by Everett Griffith, Jr. & Associates report calls the treatment plant “a disaster waiting to happen.”

“This plant has only one clarifier which is a disaster waiting to happen,” the report says.

“In the event the clarifi er becomes disabled, the treatment process would be affected causing an excursion of the discharge permit parameters which could result in fines from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

“Also, human health and safety could be in jeopardy and the environment negatively impacted.”

In an Aug. 10 letter to Chandler water customers, city administrator Jim Moffeit warned that Chandler would face daily fines from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality if the city’s treatment plant was inoperable, and that the strain on workers and to infrastructure to prevent raw waste from entering Lake Palestine may be severe.

“We would have to truck 300,000 gallons of untreated sewage to another city’s treatment plant (if you can fine one willing to take it),” Moffeit wrote. “There would not only be the cost of the trucks and dumping fees, but wear and tear on the roads to the plant, and the cost of overtime for city employees to be on site 24/7.”

The plant off Noonday Road operates with a 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.

Moffeit also took exception to Taliaferro’s petition, saying it was circulated with misinformation.

“There are always a few people who will open their mouth before they engage their brain and stir a pot, or make a pot if there is not one to stir. It seems these naysayers have little else to do with their time.”

Daniell also said petition signers were not informed.

“I don’t think the whole truth was put out. I think if people had known what the situation was, I dont think they would have ever signed it. I don’t think the real reason for it was produced.”

Council member Ann Hall agreed.

“Some of the petition signers that I visited with were told it would prevent their taxes from going up, that it had to do with the park land that the city bought, or that it involved economic-development money being used toward the new seafood restaurant that will open soon,” she said.

“Once I explained the work that needed to be done on the sewer plant, every person I spoke with said they supported having the improvements completed.”

Hall also said using revenue bonds will cost the city more money than issuing certificates of obligation.

“As a consequence of Mr. Taliaferro’s petition, the city will have to issue revenue bonds, which come with a higher interest reate than COs, costing the city and its citizens more money.”

Revenue bonds, as the name implies, are paid for by revenue generated by water and sewer rates. Chandler officials prefer to use certificates of obligation because those bonds are paid for a combination of utility revenue and ad valorem taxes.

Certificates of obligation are bonds issued without voter approval. The resolution approved on July 13 calls for payment of the certificates “from the levy and collection of ad valorem taxes ... and from a pledge of surplus revenues of the city’s waterworks and sewer system.”

More than the state-required 5 percent of voters’ signatures were obtained on Taliaferro’s petition. Moffeit has said the city could ask Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott to intervene, but that’s unlikely.

Taliaferro’s petition would force officials to call an election for Nov. 2 at the earliest — the same day on which the Brownsboro Independent School District is expected to place two propositions on the ballot for its bond election. Moffeit said in his letter that scenario could spell failure for both elections.

“The fact that Brownsboro ISD will place a bond issue around $30 million before the voters in November played a large part in the council’s decision in regards to issuing COs, which allows a city to fi- nance a project without a bond election,” he wrote. “By not placing another bond issue on the same ballot, it was in hopes that the school’s issue could stand on its own and not be affected by the city’s issue, and the city’s needs would not be affected by the outcome of the BISD’s bond election.”

The school district is scheduled to call that election on Monday.

Separately, Chandler on Aug. 10 raised base rates for water and sewer customers. For water, the rate increases to $18.50 from $15. The sewer rate increases to $20 from $17.50.

“Chandler’s base water and sewer rates have not been raised in over 20 years,” Hall said. “With the increase in costs of chemicals, electricity, and maintenance, the current water rates do not provide the city with necessary funds for major repairs or improvements.”

Visit chandlertx.com for meeting schedules.