Chapin, SC (Paul Kirby) – The Town of Chapin broke ground Wednesday on their new $13.5 million dollar waste water treatment facility. It is being built on property adjacent to the old plant on Hollyoak Lane close to Chapin and the I-26 interchange. There were a number of dignitaries and honored guests in attendance for this occasion.
Since as early as the year 2000, the town has been aware that they were going to have to take such a step. When they actually went into the sewer business to serve the Timberlake area many years ago, they began to use an aerated lagoon to treat their waste water. As more people asked to tap on, more un-treated sewage went through the system, was treated by that process, and then ran through an outfall pipe approximately 5-miles where it discharged into the Broad River. Now, not only has the extra customers and demand created a need for an upgrade, but environmental standards have been raised that have made it necessary for Chapin to better treat their waste discharge. This new plant will meet or exceed those new standards and increase the capacity of the facility. That’s important because the town is now the designated sewer provider for the area.
At the beginning of the ceremony, Chapin’s Mayor David Knight spoke for a short time. He was followed by Co-Project Managers Kevin Strickland of Hussey Gay Bell, the project’s engineers, and Eddie Wise of M.B. Kahn Construction.
Afterward, Chapin Town Councilman Al Koon spoke and referenced the specific needs for the upgrade. In his remarks, Koon said, “This plant will help us to provide the superior and reliable service that our approximately 5,000 customers deserve. We have a system and existing plant that is overwhelmed by capacity and surpassed by technology. When anyone or anything is overwhelmed, it will eventually fail. When a sewer system fails, it does hurt us, our people, the customers of the systems, our environment, our neighborhoods. We cannot and should not allow that to happen. That, and that alone, is enough of a reason for us all to work hard together to make this plant a reality.” He continued by saying, “I want my children’s children and every generation after them to know an environment like I knew it. One where you could fish and swim in the waters of our nearby rivers and know that they are clean and safe. Rivers and a surrounding environment where families can canoe, hike, wander in the woods, or just sit on a rock and watch the beautiful clean water go by.”
Afterward, the Chapin area officials were joined by others as they turned the first shovels of dirt. Clearing has already begun on the site and construction will begin very soon. Its capacity and technology is predicted to carry the needs of the system and the area well into the future. Construction on the new 2.4 million gallon-per-day plant is scheduled to be completed in 2019.
