By Vanesa Brashier, vbrashier@hcnonline.com

The Liberty City Council at its June 13 meeting voted to terminate its contract with the City of Hardin for wastewater disposal. Repeated overages flowing into the City of Liberty's wastewater plant prompted the cancelation, according to Liberty City Manager Gary Broz.

"In the certified letter we sent to the City of Hardin, it states that if they fix everything in their system, there is an opportunity to come back," Broz said. "The overages the City of Hardin are sending us every time it rains are causing a strain on our system."

The contract between the two cities allows Hardin to send a daily maximum of 200,000 gallons of wastewater, which is run through an extensive sewer system that stretches from Hardin to Liberty along SH 146. The June statement from Liberty shows that Hardin exceeded the limit four times in the month of May, with the largest increase on May 5 when Hardin sent a total of 500,000 gallons of wastewater down the pipes to Liberty.

Hardin is charged $0.75 per 1,000 gallons for the first 200,000 gallons of wastewater per day. The overages alone cost the City of Hardin an additional $5,426 on the June statement.

"The overages the City of Hardin are sending us every time it rains are causing a strain on our system." - Gary Broz, Liberty city manager

"Every time it rains, we are seeing overages," Broz said. "The City of Liberty is permitted by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to process 2.5 million gallons of wastewater per day."

On May 5, Hardin, with its 900 residents, produced one-fifth of the total capacity of wastewater permitted by Liberty, a city of 9,000 residents.

"We have to protect our sewer plant," Broz said. "That's where we are unfortunately with Hardin."

The termination will not be immediate though. The contract has a five-year termination agreement, so Hardin has time to get its sewer problems sorted.

Broz said the top priority for Hardin should be fixing its manholes, which are flooding the sewer system instead of diverting the water to drains.

In the meantime, Liberty is projecting to spend a total of $22 million over the next few years on repairs and upgrades to its sewer system.

The project will be accomplished in three phases with the first expected to cost $7 million.

The Dayton News tried to contact Hardin Mayor Stephanie Blume for comment, but phone calls to the mayor went unanswered.

In other news from the June 13 meeting, council heard a presentation from Cory Stull of the consulting firm, Freese Nichols.

Stull explained the firm's recommendations for a possible levee project that would protect the city from future floods.

On May 15, 2015, the city's current levee was threatened by flood. Emergency repairs kept the waters from breaching the levee.

According to Stull, the city can apply for two grants of approximately $2.1 million each.

The city would have to match 25 percent of each grant, but there is a possibility of folding the projects into one and reducing the costs by $1 million.

The grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency wouldf cover trash racks, culverts and paved concrete slopes on the levee.

The National Resource Conservation Service grant would fund earthwork, riprap on the new levee, extend the outfall pipes of the electric pump station to match the new levee grade extension and elevate the diesel pump outfall structure to match the new levee grade elevation.

Read more from the original source:

Liberty cancels Hardin sewer pact - Chron.com