Byrdstown City Council Approves Upgrade to Water Treatment Plant

The Byrdstown City Council has approved an upgrade to its water treatment facility using ARP money.

The Council unanimously voted to approve a $3.86-million bid to upgrade its settling ponds to a settling basin. Mayor Sam Gibson said the sooner the project starts the better.

“We’re glad to get that going and get that started,” Gibson said. “Hopefully, within a few months we can do some dirt removal and get that project started. That’s been a big need. We’ve had a lot of issues with our settling ponds.”

The city currently uses settling ponds to allow silt, dirt and trash to settle at the bottom of the pond before it is treated. A settling pond is a homemade pond lined with rocks and a linear. Gibson said the city has been having consistent issues with the settling ponds. The upgraded settling basin will be made of concrete and be much more efficient at allowing dirt and silt to settle.

“Its going to be a big plus for our water plant, for us being able to get water in,” Gibson said. “And not worrying about the issue of the water falling out and not wasting money there. We will be able to start with better water before it goes to treatment.”

Gibson said the settling ponds currently used by the city cause consistent issues.

“Even though we do it to state specs, the pond will fall out due to sink holes,” Gibson said. “We lose all of our water. We have to start all over and redo it.”

The city has had to redo their settling ponds three times in just Gibson’s tenure, a project that costs thousands of dollars each time it has to be done.

“We’d have to get our engineer, get state inspectors to come in, bring in a back hoe,” Gibson said. “We had to clean it out, take out all the mud and excess dirt. Then you have to cover the whole and start with the rocks, then dirt, then liner, then another 4-6 inches of soil on top of that. You can imagine its thousands of dollars to do that…Hopefully, we have done that for the last time.”

Gibson said the project will be started in three to four months. He said he believes the new settling basin will be ready to go late next year.