Springtown Gets Sewer Service After Years of Waiting

The small unincorporated area located directly East of Potosi, Missouri is known far-and-wide for the wastewater system problems that have persisted since the 1970’s.  The small area of Springtown consists of 231 homes, businesses and churches. As the area developed, a water system Washington County Public Water Supply District (PWSD) #1, was constructed that provided potable water to most of the area’s home.  Unfortunately, these same homes were located on extremely small lots that have proven to have over a 90% failure rate of their private septic systems.

Realizing the problems that have plagued the area for years, concerned citizens contacted SSE.  Current PWSD board member Darrel Adams said “They quickly went to work and helped us organize our existing water district into a district that could also offer sewer services. They then provided us with a financial feasibility study of the anticipated project. We used the framework SSE provided and successfully passed a $2.5 million dollar revenue bond that allowed us to secure a $538,000 low-interest loan and over $1.71 million in grants.”

SSE Business Development Director Marvin Nesbit added “Springtown received a larger grant percentage than all but one of our past customers with 76% of the project being state and federal grants.”

 

Design for the project involved creating an intergovernmental agreement with the City of Potosi to use a wastewater plant that was constructed for the Potosi Industrial Park.  Once the agreement was secured, SSE developed plans for the gravity system, which were sent to USDA-Rural Development and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources for their approval in June of 2010. “We can’t thank the USDA-Rural Development and the MoDNR enough! Also the city of Potosi was very helpful and without them we could never have completed these improvements,” said Darrel Adams.

One of the most time consuming tasks of any new sewer system is obtaining easements. In an effort to keep the project quickly moving forward SSE procured over 200 easements by the fall of 2010. Construction began in July of 2012, and is expected to be complete in early 2013.

SSE Poplar Bluff operations Manager Tim Southards concluded, “We enjoy working with the folks in Springtown and their sewer district is exactly the kind of project Rural Development had in mind when they started this program. We always enjoy helping communities like Springtown learn about and obtain funding from these programs. In SSE’s short history we have helped communities obtain over $100 million for water and wastewater improvements.”