CHANDLER — It could be more than six months before a new clarifer is installed at the city’s wastewater treatment plant after a petition forced officials to reverse themselves on issuing $1.3 million in certifi- cates of obligation.

“The process will slow us down,” city administrator Jim Moffeit said. “If we had been able to sell certifi- cates of obligation, it would have been much quicker and a cheaper way of doing things.”

Chandler more than two weeks ago decided to use revenue bonds instead of certificates, because the latter would have required voter approval after Howard Taliaferro collected enough signatures on a petition to force an election.

That move, Moffeit said, will prove to be more costly to the city.

“We’re hoping for an interest rate around 4 percent, but it could be between 4.5 and 6 percent. Certificates of obligation would have been under 4 percent.”

The city’s financial advisor, RBC Capital Markets of San Antonio, is looking for the best rate, Moffeit said.

“We have provided RBC with all the information it needs ... but it could easily be Spring before we get anything going.”

Legal requirements would take about three weeks, Moffeit said, followed by 30 to 60 days before the project is funded.

“Meanwhile, you can be working with the engineer on planning. And because this is an expan- sion to the plant, we have to get repermitted by the state. We’ll just have to see how this all pans out.”

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

Chandler wanted to use certificates of obligation because those bonds are paid for a combination of utility revenue and ad valorem taxes.

The city was scheduled to issue the certificates on Aug. 24. But a petition signed by 221 Chandler residents and filed by Taliaferro to block the issuance without a bond election forced the city to rethink how it should fi- nance the construction of a second clarifer and other work at the treatment plant.

The most critical needs at the plant — installing the clarifier 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.

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 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.

Taliaferro’s petition would have forced officials to call an election for Nov. 2 — the same day on which the Brownsboro Independent School District has placed two propositions.

City Council members feared that scenario could have spelled failure for both elections.

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.