Big news on the Georgetown sewage front, with the opening of a new wastewater plant and some resolution of the controversy surrounding the old one. On Nov. 13, the city unveiled the new Pecan Branch treatment plant, located three miles east of town and serving residents in northern Georgetown, including Sun City. The plant, city officials note, uses “state-of-the-art” technology that eliminates the need for storing toxic gases at the facility site.
The previous day, the city announced its latest plan for dealing with the ongoing concerns about the structural integrity of the existing Dove Springs wastewater plant. The plant’s original engineers, Charles and Perry Steger of Steger & Bizzell, will inspect Dove Springs and report findings to the council once a year — in short, the council seems inclined to let the matter drop. The plant has been a political football in Georgetown for several years, amid accusations that the Stegers failed to use enough structural steel when designing the tank. The Stegers naturally dispute this assertion, suggesting the controversy is politically motivated and that the first two independent reviews were biased.
Nonetheless, the city council voted to accept the Stegers’ offer of annual inspections and reports through 2013 and a physical inspection of the tank’s interior wall — which has cracked repeatedly since Dove Springs was opened — when the tank is emptied in FY 2004 for further construction. While this resolution doesn’t answer many of the concerns over Dove Springs, “the City Council’s vote of acceptance means that the city of Georgetown agrees with Steger & Bizzell’s course of action regarding plant design concerns,” reads a city press release.
This article appears in November 29 • 2002.