Where's the Smell?

Georgetown Mayor MaryEllen Kersch (Photo By Jana Birchum)

With the city's recall election looming Saturday, Feb. 2, Georgetown engineer Charles Steger, President of Steger & Bizzell engineering, placed a half-page ad in the Williamson County Sun in an attempt, he said, to set the record straight regarding his firm's engineering of Georgetown's Dove Springs Wastewater Treatment Plant. Steger's ad describes as "misleading" the results of two independent engineering reports on the plant, completed in 1998 and 1999 by Austin engineering firm Jose I. Guerra Inc. The reports said the plant was leaking because of apparently substandard engineering or construction, with insufficient structural steel (see "Something Stinks," Sept. 14, 2001). These findings were described in a political mailer recently distributed by the Citizens for Georgetown political action committee, which supports the recall of Mayor MaryEllen Kersch and four council members.

Steger told "Naked City" he stands by the original engineering of the plant done by his company. "Instead of analyzing how we [engineered the plant], he just said he would've done it another way," Steger said. "There's simply not just one way to do these things." In his Sun ad, Steger charges that the "report indicating inadequate design of the concrete is incorrect," and that the "report indicating that sludge is oozing from the concrete walls, is patently false."

Steger said while there may be leaks in the plant's concrete walls, these are normal and something taken into account when designing such a structure. But the 1998 Guerra report states that the steel used in the tank is less than would be "required by design," and that in the worst case, "the actual reinforcing steel is only 35% of what is required." Further, the report noted that the concrete walls of the clarifier tank appear to be "at or near their yield point in some locations."

Steger says the plant has plenty of steel, and he is suspicious of the independent engineer's motives. "Look at all the editorial comments [in the report], all the shoulda, woulda, couldas," he said. "Those kinds of comments have absolutely no place in an engineering report." At press time, Guerra could not be reached for comment.

Steger said he has never spoken out about the report's contents before because he didn't get copies until April 2001. And when he did, he had to sign a non-disclosure agreement, leaving him helpless to respond, he says, except to those portions that have already made it into the public purview. "These things are very inflammatory and make good press," he said, "but they're not true." (For more on Georgetown's political follies, see "Georgetown Smackdown," Aug. 17, 2001.)