Consultants tell Smyrna council leak repairs and a sewer hydraulic model can delay costly plant expansion

Smyrna heard detailed technical findings Wednesday on its water and sewer systems, with consultant Ryan Chamblee of Thomas & Hutton saying recent leak detection and repairs have reduced water loss and deferred pressure on treatment capacity.

"The current design capacity [for the water plant] is 18.3 million gallons per day," said Ryan Chamblee, environmental group leader at Thomas & Hutton. He told the council the wastewater plant operates under a discharge permit for 9 MGD and that plant infrastructure was laid out to allow expansion to roughly 12 MGD with equipment upgrades.

The presentation summarized monitoring data from January 2023 through August 2025 and two projection approaches: a straight trend-line projection and a units-built projection tied to residential development. Chamblee said repairs after a February leak-detection effort reduced water loss from as high as about 40%…