Haynie-Sirrine sewer fix pending

By Charles Sowell  

DECEMBER 18, 2009 10:17 a.m. (0)

It will take just over $3 million to fix a warren of leaky sewer pipes in the Haynie-Sirrine basin.

The city has options on timing and financing the work, which would require a slight increase in sewage fees from about $13 to $19 citywide for five years to rush the work to completion and the other would spread the work out over a longer period using budgeted funds.

City Council has not indicated which financing route they will take.

Michael Murphy, public works director, said the work must be done to address inflow and infiltration problems with sanitary sewer lines.

Inflow problems soak up sewage treatment capacity when rainwater and ground water intrude into the sewer system and mix with untreated sewage.

This can hamper development and leaking sewer lines often release untreated sewage into the environment. The Haynie Sirrine basin drains into the Reedy River at Cleveland Park where city sewers join Renewable Water Resources trunk lines that flow into the Mauldin Road treatment plant about three miles downstream.

There are about 47,000 feet of line in the Haynie Sirrine area, of that 77 percent is in need of repair at varying levels of severity.

Murphy said 42 percent is in medium condition with visible problems and 35 percent of the total is considered in bad condition with gaping holes that need immediate work.

The city has been under court order until recently to improve problems with inflow and infiltration. City officials said the Environmental Protection Agency recently released them from supervision and the state Department is Health and Environmental Control has indicated they intend to follow suit.

The order has been in place since the 1980s when a settlement was reached with the regional sewage authority (ReWa) and sewer subdistricts in the area, including Greenville.

Murphy said the Haynie Sirrine basin has long been considered a prime area for redevelopment along the Church Street corridor under the city’s 15-year development program with ReWa. He said no development can begin until the sewer problems are fixed.

ReWa’s Mauldin Road capacity is 75 million gallons of raw sewage a day, council was told. However, because of the problems they can allocate only a fraction of that capacity for new development.

As the Haynie Sirrine area is redeveloped along Church the sanitary sewage outflows will increase, largely through some of the worst sections of pipe, council was told.

David Sudduth questioned need for haste because of the recession. No work is planned for the area along Church in the immediate future.

Sewer lines have collapsed in recent years in the Haynie Sirrine area and some of the worst lines actually run beneath houses, council was told.

The area has been videotaped and the worst areas identified, Murphy said. Most of the pipes would be repaired using inserts, although digging would be involved in some cases.

Council was told the city could do the work in phases, and outflows from the Church Street area should be done first in order to add additional capacity for future development.