Odor Control and Biosolids Conversion to Progress in Spite of Metro Water Budget Problems

Some of you who read the City Paper piece yesterday on Metro Water's budget challenges may have been troubled as I was that the Mayor's Office plans to delay certain water/sewer projects around Nashville as a partial remedy (raising outlying rates to be the rest of the remedy). For those of us concerned with the progress of the odor control measures and the conversion of the Central Water Treatment facility to a biosolids complex, NCP reporter Bill Harless's vague reference to the delays without any specifics was rather disconcerting.

So, I sent an e-mail off to the Mayor's Office yesterday asking if the Central Project was to be put on hold and whether the recent increase of smelly odors was due to that delay. You may be glad to hear that the odor abatement project has already been funded and will move forward in spite of the expected budget shortfalls. What Harless failed to stipulate and what a Purcell spokesperson clarified to me was that the programs the Mayor mentioned yesterday as candidates for delay have to do with storm water projects. However, that news may cause even more concern for those of you who were expecting storm water improvements in the near future.