The county is planning some $23 million in wastewater projects at Soddy Daisy and Ooltewah. The county will be supplying $13 million with the remainder from grants.
Mike Patrick, who heads the Hamilton County Water and Wastewater Treatment Authority, said the work is long overdue and is aimed at cutting sewer overflows that winds up in streams and the Tennessee River.
There will be a large new sewage holding tank at Ooltewah, and a tank and rehab work at Soddy Daisy, which is now affected by a building moratorium due to sewage issues.
Mr. Patrick said the Soddy Daisy project should be bid in April or May and under construction in late summer or fall. The construction time is about 18 months.
He said a wastewater rehab project is also planned for Red Bank, which is also affected by a building moratorium. That will be covered by county bond funds.
Mr. Patrick said rates to WWTA customers have been rising, but he said they would more than double without such projects.
Questioned by Commissioner Warren Mackey, he said a sewage plant out in the county remains as a need.
County Mayor Jim Coppinger had tried to build a $45 million sewage facility out in the county, but it was voted down.
He said that action still needs to be taken, saying plants now are much more efficient and odorless than when the city's Moccasin Bend plant was built in 1958. He said one sewage plant in Gatlinburg is next to a high school "and nobody knows it's there."