Vernon to receive over $3M grant for new sewer treatment system

VERNON, Ala (WCBI) – The city of Vernon will be receiving millions of dollars, and they may help clean the air.

The Alabama Department of Environment Management will be awarding a grant of more than $3.4 million to make massive improvements to the municipal water system lagoon.

Vernon’s sewer system is more than 30 years old and is in serious need of updating.

The influx of cash means that the city will be able to meet current needs and plan expansion for the future.

Mayor Glenn Crawford says the grant will come out to be around $3.44 million and will help to clear up a problem the city has had for several years.

“Over the last few years, we’ve had a problem with the sewer treatment plant not properly taking care of the product that comes into it, and therefore it’s not getting a good clean sample coming out and so the solution here is to basically take that one out because it is the old and outdated process now and we’re gonna come back with a new more modern sewer system that will treat the water more properly,” said Crawford.

Tina Quinn is the office manager for the Vernon Water Department. She said this isn’t the first time work has been done to make the sewer system better.

Almost 10 years ago solar-powered pumps were installed in an attempt to reduce the effects of algae.

“Back in 2012 we did the solar bees at the lagoon trying to fix the problem we had with being non-compliant with ADEM and it did not work or it has not worked as successfully as we had hoped. We continued to have some problems with algae growth and that is one of the problems we have and that is one of the things we are trying to eliminate,” said Quinn.

The good news for residents is a newer plant won’t necessarily mean a higher bill.

“It should not affect anything cost-wise on the customers because of the fact that it is 100% paid,” said Quinn.

While the community may not see a direct change, the new plant will help one flush at a time.

“People won’t see this one on the outside or see this one at their home but they’ll realize as the system changes out we will be under the ADEM specifications for how the sewer treatment plans to operate, and functions, and that makes it better for the people that live here,” said Crawford.

It will take three to five months to rebuild the new sewer treatment.

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