Timmonsville looks at sewage solutions

Timmonsville Town Council is considering solutions to residents’ sewer overflow problems and a troubled sewage lift station in town.

Council on Tuesday heard from two town residents who said their new homes suffer from backups involving the town’s sewer system.

“This will push people out (of town) — it’ll push me out,” Carter Street resident Calvin James told council.

Mayor James Beard Jr. told the town’s public works director to work with the streets superintendent to solve the problem today.

Beard also asked James’ neighbor, Ivey Self, whether the overflow problems at her house had been solved after her previous complaints. She said they hadn’t.

“I got tired of talking with the town, so I talked to an attorney,” she told council. “And now my attorney will be talking to the town.”

Council on Tuesday also voted unanimously to determine the best solution regarding a lift station that frequently malfunctions.

The lift station’s pumps run continually and burn out because of T-shirts, towels and other items that don’t dissolve after people place them into the town’s wastewater system, Beard said.

“Something has to be done because we’re getting ready to face an inspection,” he said.

One solution is to run a gravity line to a force main and bypass the lift station, Beard said. Councilman William James Jr. said he had concerns about simply rebuilding the lift station because the same problems could occur when the insoluble materials enter the sewage system.

Town Public Works Director Dino Ford suggested a catch basin that would remove such materials from the wastewater.

Ford said the town should determine how often a line bypassing the lift station would need to be flushed. The cost of engineering and surveying to resolve the sewer problem would run about $3,600, plus a $100 application fee to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, Beard said.

The town will determine the best course of action based on its resources, he said. Beard also suggested the town should hold a budget workshop within the next few weeks. The town’s fiscal year begins March 1.