Sewer Capacity and Allocation

At a glance

Details come from auto-captions.

• What: city sewer capacity is constrained in several sewer sheds.
• Where it stands: as of August 4, 2026 an engineer projected about 90 days for a Pilot-area capacity analysis.
• Next: then roughly 60 days of preliminary drawings and 30 days of construction drawings, so 7 to 9 months before financing could be sought. Realistic timelines for the main projects are 3 to 10 years.

Capacity by area

• The Pilot area is over-allocated with no new flow approved.
• East Davidson has approved 22 projects with three on hold for not meeting the allocation policy.
• Raines Road is being monitored (under a month of data) but looks able to serve all requests so far, mainly single-family.

Plant and system limits

• Morgan Huffman, Director of Public Utilities, said both the water and wastewater plants are rated 6 MGD but run about 2.25 to 2.5 MGD (water) and 2.1 to 2.25 MGD (wastewater).
• The water plant is about 100 years old and landlocked.
• The key limits are force mains at the Pilot, East Davidson and North Side pump stations.

Funding and advice

• Funding has historically been the clean water state revolving fund.
• The rate study (Willdan Financial Services) is done every five years and was said to be due this year.
• Staff advice to council was to lobby the state for far more water and sewer funding.
• Out-of-city rate structures may be limited by new legislation.
• See also Sewer Asset Inventory and Assessment Grant.

Discussion time

About 17 minutes across 1 meeting (from transcript timestamps; approximate).

Log

• 2026-08-04 - Public Services Committee - Morgan Huffman answered five written questions: capacity, bottlenecks, timeline (3 to 10 years), funding and recommended actions.