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Residents attempt to sniff out an answer to the town’s wastewater problems
By Ann Marie Shambaugh, Staff Writer
The fragrances of the holidays are reaching their peak in Little Elm. The smell of turkey filled hundreds of homes last week, and the scent of fresh pine needs and hot chocolate will perk the senses at Holidaze this weekend.
Unfortunately for some residents, the odor of rotten eggs and human waste has superseded the holiday fragrances this year.
“It is in our house, and there is no room you can go to where you can escape it,” Little Elm resident James Bishop said. “We are forced to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner with the smell of human feces in our nostrils. We have to sleep in our beds with the same smell filling our lungs with every breath. Consequently, it has resulted in our loss of appetite as well as sleep.”
Bishop has lived in Wynfield Farms, which is directly north of the town’s wastewater treatment plant, for more than five years. He said that he began noticing the smell early this year, but that it grew unbearable for a few days last week.
Public Works Director Doug Peach said that he received a large amount of complaints about the stench last week, which he believes was caused by operational problems at the wastewater treatment plant.
“We’re not absolutely sure what caused that,” he said. “Possibly something was introduced to the collections system that caused some sort of problem … It may be attributed a little bit to the weather, but things have really recovered in the last couple of days.”
Bishop said that the smell has dissipated in recent days, but his desire to fight the continual problem has not. He and another resident started www.littleelmstinks.com, a Web site that addresses Little Elm’s foul problem.
“It is my hope that it can bring together affected people so that we can discuss our options and put pressure on Little Elm’s government to step up and do the right thing,” Bishop said.
He also said that those options include picketing at public places and Chamber of Commerce events, letter writing campaigns to discourage new businesses from moving to town, and even a class action lawsuit.
“It seems the only way to motivate the town government to address this problem is to create another kind of stink they can’t ignore,” Bishop said.
Although the unpleasant aroma in Wynfield Farms may have lessened in the past week, wastewater odors in the town have been an ongoing problem, which can be partly credited to the explosive population growth.
“The fault clearly lies with the city,” Bishop said. “The city officials are responsible for promoting the growth of Little Elm in the past few years. Little Elm’s officials and its planners are responsible for ensuring that the city has the infrastructure to support such expansion.”
Public works officials recently discovered that one of the sewer lines along Eldorado Parkway is not large enough to handle all of the wastewater flowing into it, especially at peak use times. The pipe is 10 inches in diameter, which collects water from an 18 inch pipe.
Although the 18 inch pipe is rarely full, the 10 inch pipe can reach maximum capacity during heavy use, which pushes wastewater air out through the vents.
“That is a big contributor to the wastewater problem,” Peach said.
Relief from this problem, however, is in sight. The public works department approved a contract in October to replace the 10 inch pipe. Construction is expected to begin in mid-December, and it should be complete before the end of April.
“When this line is replaced, I believe we’re going to notice a reduction in odor complaints,” Peach said.
Peach also said that the town could encounter this type of problem in other high-growth areas, but the public works department has already branded the problem pipes and will be prepared to replace them as the need arises.
“They’re not at the point where they require that today, but they have been identified,” he said.
Even with all of the wastewater improvements, those living closest to the treatment plant may continue to notice occasional foul odors, but a majority of those are expected to be reduced in the coming years with a structural overhaul at the wastewater treatment plant.
The improvements will enclose areas of the plant that produce odor, and create a vacuum to extract air off the top and push it through chemical scrubbers.
“It will actually clean the air before it’s released to the environment,” Peach said. “When that [project]’s done, I think our wastewater odors will be very negligible … Most people, if there was a little faint odor, would probably attribute it to the lake as an earthy-type smell.”
Design is 30 percent complete on the project, with a full design expected in early spring. After design approval, it will take about 10 to 12 months to build.
All of the sewage odor problems are caused by hydrogen sulfide, a toxic gas that is found in the human mouth and gastrointestinal tract in small amounts. Although the gas can be deadly when inhaled in high concentrations, the amount found in the air in Little Elm n though sometimes pungent n should not be a cause for major health concerns.
“Hydrogen sulfide is a very lethal type gas in concentrations, but you have to be somewhere where it’s going to be contained or you have a lack of oxygen and a concentration of hydrogen sulfide, and that’s very difficult to do in an open environment,” Peach said.
Bishop said that the smell is causing other types of health problems.
“We are inhaling airborne fecal matter from thousands of Little Elm residents,” he said. “Common sense says that there can be nothing healthy about that, regardless of the city’s assurances. That doesn’t even account for the psychological effect, the mental welfare of families forced to live with the smell in their own homes.”
The public works department recently solved one hydrogen sulfide issue in town by adding Bioxide, a product that removes dissolved hydrogen sulfide and blocks new formation by supplementing nitrate oxygen.
“The purpose of that is to keep the wastewater oxygen rich, because if it’s oxygen rich it won’t release that hydrogen sulfide,” Peach said. “It’s still going to be there, it’s just not going to release it.”
Peach said that odor complaints have dropped dramatically in areas treated with Bioxide.
The following are comments from the readers.
In no way do they represent the view of Starlocalnews.com
In no way do they represent the view of Starlocalnews.com
Jim wrote on Nov 28, 2007 9:27 PM:
" How to solve the problem:
1) Make all of the city officials ---from the mayor on down---- camp out along the creek at Winfield Farms for 24 hours when the wind is blowing from the south!They could even hold an outdoor city council meeting! 2) File complaints with the EPA and be persistant!
This problem all stems back to uncontrolled population growth without having the necessary resources (infrastructure) in place to support the growth! Little Elm has a "knack" for doing that! "
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