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Demer replied. "If the plant is run properly, you shouldn't have an odor problem...I don’t know exactly how far the odor will carry. It depends on atmospheric conditions."
Asked for the life expectancy of the STEP pump, the engineer replied that the WSA, not the homeowner, will be responsible for maintenance and replacement of pumps.
“Can this system work in a flood plain?" asked Lester Deal.
Demer answered that the septic tanks are completely sealed and water tight. Collection lines won’t require manholes and so will also be totally sealed off from inflow of ground water. “It won't make any difference it it’s in a flood plain." he added.
Bill Loomis asked if Buchart-Horn were the only engineers consulted on the project.
WSA secretary Bob Dennis, chairman for the hearing, noted that several different firms worked on the project prior to BuchartHorn.
His firm also worked closely with engineers from the Health Department and SWCB evaluating alternative designs, Demer added.
Martin Woodward asked why the STEP system is so much cheaper than other alternatives.
SI 2-Si 4 Per Foot
To lay conventional gravity flow lines require deeper cuts and larger pipes while STEP pressure lines can be laid at much less depth without regard for topography, according to Demer. He noted that eight-inch gravity lines with manholes cost approximately $45 per foot compared to $12-$ 14 per foot for four-inch pressure lines.
"Is there another community in the United States using a similar system?” Fred Schaefer inquired.
A comparable system is currently under construction in Grottos, Virginia, and several small communities in California are currently using the same method, Demer responded. The technology isn't new but has only become popular recently due to the rising costs of sewer construction, he added.
Gainesville-Haymarket is currently installing a sewer treatment facility utilizing similar technology with small diameter lines, Wilson noted.
Enough Water
Stressing that Sperryville has a water supply problem with its shallow water table. Deal asked how a sewer treatment plant could be operated without adequate water. He said that in drilling wells in the area, water is struck at about 50 feet. “But you can go down 2,000 feet and not find anything beyond that...Most of the village residents are now drinking river water.”
Water quality problems in Sperryville are the direct result of pit privies, discharge of raw sewage into the Thornton and malfunctioning septic tanks, according to Dennis. Sewage infiltration into wells is the cause of high fecal coliform counts found by Health Department testing, he said. “1 was getting my water from a well about a half mile beyond the village of Sperryville,” countered Deal, whose sandwich shop was closed by the Health
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