BY FRANK DELANO
Westmoreland County supervisors will be asked tomorrow to approve an application for $5.1 million in federal stimulus funds to extend sewer service from Coles Point to communities on the other side of Lower Machodoc Creek.
The money would be used to run sewer lines from the Coles Point wastewater-treatment plant to houses in Drum Bay Estates, then under the creek to the Chatham Village and Tidwells communities, said County Administrator Norm Risavi.
According to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has provided $77 million to build water and sewer projects in Virginia. Applications for the money are due tomorrow.
The act requires work to begin by mid-February of next year. "That would be no problem," said Risavi.
He said the project might benefit from the fact that the Coles Point plant does not discharge treated effluent into Potomac River tributaries. Effluent from the plant is sprayed onto fields where hay is grown and harvested.
Risavi said that an additional holding tank would be the only major modification required to the treatment plant.
High bacteria levels prohibit shellfish harvesting in much of Lower Machodoc Creek. A 2003 survey by the Virginia Department of Health said that dysfunctional septic systems at 12 percent of the residences in the watershed contribute to bacterial pollution in the creek.
The Westmoreland supervisors' meeting begins at 9:30 a.m. in the circuit courtroom of the county office building on Polk Street in Montross.
Frank Delano: 804/333-3834
Email: fpdelano@gmail.com