Crews work on the ARSA wastewater treatment plant along Kentucky 19 in Bracken County.
BROOKSVILLE — The expected completion of the Augusta Regional Water Authority wastewater treatment plant has been postponed until Aug. 3.
Randall Smith, chair of ARSA, said crews are working diligently, but due to recent bad weather, the expected completion date has been moved.
“When you have so many rain days, you can ask for an extension,” he said. “That’s what happened; we had a lot of rain days and everything was pushed back.”
According to Smith, Brooksville residents will be online once the work has been completed. However, Augusta residents will have to wait to hook onto the new line due to archaeological work.
“There is some archaeological work being completed in Augusta, so the residents there will hook on at a later date,” he said. “We don’t have an exact time frame for that.”
Smith also said residents along Kentucky 19 will hook on at different times.
Residents along that area will receive a letter stating they can hook on to the new system and will have 90 days to do so.
Smith said he is pleased with how the construction on the plant is coming along.
“I feel great about it,” he said. “The contractors are professional and have worked hard. We’re in pretty good shape. We had a change order that delayed completion just a bit, but we’re optimistic about the timeline.”
According to Smith, there will not be any full-time employees inside the plant, but there will be an operator there part of the day. ARSA will also be contracting with a company to provide maintenance to the plant and is working to contract the existing employees in Augusta and Brooksville who will continue maintenance in both cities.
The wastewater treatment plant has been planned for several years and was suggested at the state level, according to Smith.
“Both Augusta and Brooksville have aging plants. They don’t meet the current standards,” he said. “We had no choice but to address these systems. The state believes the best option is for a regional treatment plant. By doing this, we are addressing those weaknesses in areas that don’t have good sanitation.”
The force mainline is being completed by BP Piping, the pump stations are being completed by Frederick and Mays Construction Company and the plant construction is being completed by Smith Contracting, Inc.
The full cost of the project is $13.5 million.
The plant is funded through a rural development loan of $3.2 million, a rural development grant of $2.8 million, a Kentucky infrastructure loan of $6.3 million with $1.3 million of it forgiven and a grant for $100,000.
The website said the projected costs to customers will be $48.60 for the first 2,000 gallons of water used and $7.75 per 1,000 gallons after. The average customer uses about 3,000 gallons of water per month.
“These calculations are projected, based upon the cost estimates to construct the system, as well as operate the system once it is live,” the website said. “These calculations are based upon serving 855 existing users and 73 new additional customers.”
More information can be found on the website at https://arsa.ky.gov/Pages/index.aspx or on the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/ARSA.KY.GOV/.
