Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Water Sewer Infrastructure topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
City reports higher MWPP score but rising overflows; council sends annual report to DEQ
Summary
Consultant David Curtis told the Covington City Council the city's wastewater treatment plant recorded no permit violations in 2024, raised its MWPP score to 90 from 72.5, and that the plant exceeded its 2.5-million-gallon design capacity several times last year; council unanimously adopted a resolution to transmit the MWPP audit to the Louisiana
The Covington City Council accepted the city's Municipal Wastewater Pretreatment Program (MWPP) audit and voted to transmit the report to the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, after hearing that the city's wastewater treatment plant had no permit violations in 2024 but had experienced increased inflow and overflows in parts of the collection system.
David Curtis of Curtis Environmental, who conducts the MWPP audit, told the council the plant's design capacity is 2,500,000 gallons per day and that the facility exceeded that flow several times in 2024. "The good news is how good y'all's operators are—no violations in 2024," Curtis said, and added the plant's MWPP score increased from 72.5 to 90.
Curtis said the uptick in overflows and bypass events is largely tied to growth, aging pipes and ongoing construction in the collection system. He described the plant's biosolids disposal process: sludge is sent to Kiln, Mississippi, for land application as agricultural biosolids. "We do a load, maybe a load and a half a month, depending on flow through the plant," he said.
City officials described a sequence of recent and planned infrastructure investments intended to reduce inflow-and-infiltration and improve resilience. City staff and council reported work that has been completed or is under design, including camera and lining projects, replacement of a Brooklya Park lift station ($58,000), a cured-in-place lining project in River Forest ($1,750,000), a pipe-bursting replacement under North Taylor Street ($492,000), and a planned Oak Alley lift-station expansion (about $589,000). City officials said a $2.8 million federal grant is available for additional clay-pipe remediation and that the city is drafting a contract for an engineer to prepare a new master plan for the treatment plant.
Council members praised operators and staff for daily plant performance. Curtis recommended continued reinvestment in collection-system repairs, pump-station upgrades and force-main work to reduce overflows. The resolution the council adopted memorializes the MWPP audit, certifies council members have reviewed the audit and authorizes the mayor to transmit the document to LDEQ for the permit record.
The council adopted the resolution on a roll call with affirmative votes recorded by the attending council members. City staff said the work program and grant-funded projects are intended to improve system capacity as the city grows.
