By John Howell
Flushable wipes are not flushable. Not really, not according to Batesville Wastewater Treatment Plant Supervisor David Karr.

“A lot of cities are fighting these flushable wipes; that’s a big thing on the market today. All throughout the United States, it’s killing the sewer systems. They don’t biodegrade,” Karr said during a recent meeting of the city’s mayor and aldermen.

Karr has spent many minutes before city officials during 2015 describing recent problems created as increasing quantities of foreign debris flow into the sanitary sewage system, damaging lift station pumps and creating extended maintenance issues in the plant itself.
“We’re not through the emergency yet,” Karr said during the July 21 Third Tuesday city board meeting.

Aldermen had voted in June to authorize $43,000 in emergency repairs at the treatment plant where sedimentation has filled oxidation ditches.

“A lot of this goes back to manholes,” Mayor Jerry Autrey said. “A lot of them are underground that should be above ground.”

Autrey said that he wants the Water and Sewer Dept., the Fire Department and Wastewater Treatment Plant to coordinate efforts to locate problem manholes.

“It’s a big program and Mike (Water and Sewer Department Superintendent Mike Ross) can’t handle it; all departments are going to have to work together on it,” the mayor said.
“Do we need to divide up the town into five or six different sections …?,” Alderman Teddy Morrow said.

“Well, I want them to come up with a plan. We’ve got to get all this foreign stuff that’s going into these manholes.”

“I’ve seen everything come into that plant from $100 bills to two-by-fours; the $100 bills not very often,” Karr said, prompting a round of laughter.

“It’s gotten worse and worse; it’s never been a problem we couldn’t handle without going to extra expense,” Karr said.

The wastewater treatment plant superintendent said that the original plant was built in 1968, expanded during the 1980s and in 1992.

In addition to flushable wipes, Karr said disposable baby diapers, red and blue shop rags and other, less recognizable debris contributed to the problems.

Karr’s discussion of the immediate problems at the wastewater treatment plant is conducted against the backdrop of the last five years of preparing city officials for a multi-million dollar upgrade that will be required for the plant. 

Karr and City Engineer Blake Mendrop are attempting to design modifications to the plant that will bring it into compliance with pending Environmental Protection Agency regulations that have yet to be announced.