WEBSTER COUNTY, KY (12/19/12) - Crews were working Tuesday afternoon in Hudson Meadows in Providence to install a new sewage lift station.

“We’re trying to reduce INI, which is infiltration, and excess rain water in the lines,” said Providence sewer and water plant superintendent Mark Pharris. “For the past five years this lift station has been overwhelmed with water because of the INI.”

He said that at times the station had even gotten so backed up with rain water that it had begun to leak into a nearby creek. It also created a situation where sewage water could back up into the houses between Hudson Meadows and the VFW.

“One way to solve the problem was to install a larger lift station,” Pharris said. “We can use the older lift station as kind of an overflow lift by-pass station.”

Currently there are two lift stations that dump into the one in Hudson Meadows, which then dumps into the lift station near the VFW. With installation of the new lift station, instead of dumping into the VFW station, the waste water will proceed on towards the sewage treatment plant.

“This will speed up the process of the sewage getting to the treatment plant,” he explained. “That should alleviate the smell.”

The Hudson Meadows station will empty into the main line near the intersection of Foxwell and Westerfield Drive.

The location near the VFW is keeping the same lift station, but it's getting new pumps and a new control box.

“This kind of helps out the whole city,” Pharris explained. “The new pumps reduce the cost of the electricity, it keeps water from backing up and it should eliminate the odor on Westerfield Drive.”

The project is phase two of an attempt to alleviate the foul odor on Westerfield Drive near the old Williams Funeral Home.

Two months ago a new filtration station was installed on 41A just north of Providence. That station was tasked with the job of eliminating the odor in waste water coming from Dixon. So far that system has been successful, but it has not totally eliminated the odor on Westerfield Drive.

“I put a mechanical nose on the line from Dixon (when it first came online),” he explained. “It did great for a week and then for four days straight it really stank up there.”

Pharris said the problem was that the wireless signal was so bad that the filtration station couldn’t stay connected. Since the upgrade to AT&T’s local network a few weeks ago everything has operated smoothly.

The work in Hudson Meadows triggered a boil water advisory on Tuesday afternoon. This was just a precaution because the pump station was located close to a water line.
 
Matt Hughes
J-E News Editor

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