Bluff City staff outline water, sewer projects and pursue multiple grant options

Bluff City officials heard a project update Wednesday on ongoing water and sewer work and were told staff will pursue several outside funding options.

Austin Smith, an engineer with Mattern & Craig, told the Board of Mayor and Aldermen the town’s water treatment plant improvement project is scheduled to be rebid on Aug. 13 and that asset-management field work for water and sewer systems has been completed and is being entered into the town’s GIS system. "The big thing there left is compiling that into the formal documentation that TDEC . . . wants," Smith said.

The update covered several near-term operational tasks: a sewer replacement across the street from the plant, survey work expected to start next week, and planned smoke testing of a downtown trunk line to locate infiltration and inflow. Smith said one inspector estimated crews can canvas about 4,000 feet of main trunk line in a day in the…