Harper working to keep pipeline funding flowing
By Randy Bell
These are uncertain times for those depending on federal funding for their programs and projects. But Gregg Harper, the former Mississippi congressman who’s been scraping up money on Capitol Hill and at the State Capitol for a multi-million-dollar pipeline aimed at maintaining the viability of Clinton’s sewage treatment system and promoting economic development in western Hinds County, says the recent groundbreaking for the first portion of the regional pipeline is a positive sign.
“The great thing is that this is a project that is already started and is ongoing,” Harper says. “That makes it a little easier to keep the funding going. It’s not just getting money and having plans. We’re actually doing stuff.” But he admits, “We still have a lot of challenges.”
For one thing, the price tag on the forty miles of pipeline to the Big Black River is a moving target.
“When it originally started, I think it was something around $90 million,” Harper notes. “The last estimate is probably $130 million and maybe more.”
And some of the money that was earmarked for the project fell through last fiscal year, because of the inability of Congress to reach a budget agreement.
“ We had $7.7 million lined up on Congressionally directed spending, and that just got frozen. So, we’re going back and trying that again,” he says. “We’ve met with folks in both [U.S.} senators’ offices trying to make sure that we’re on their radar.”
Harper is also looking for continued funding from the Mississippi Legislature.
“We’re waiting to see what’s going to happen on the state level. There’s going to be a special session, and we’re trying to pick up some additional support there.”
He’s praising City leaders and members of the Clinton-Raymond-Bolton Wastewater Authority board for seeing the need for the pipeline and pushing ahead on the project.
“Everybody’s working together,” Harper says. “And, you know, if everybody’s on the same page, moving in the same direction, it does make the opportunities even greater. I can’t say enough about soon-to-be outgoing Mayor Phil Fisher and the vision he had and the support of the Board here on a project [where] they just didn’t wait to be told, ‘Oh, you’re in trouble and not in compliance.’ They saw it, and they’ve been working ahead. I certainly want to thank former Speaker Philip Gunn for his great work on the project. It’s been a total team effort. And we’re going to get there.”
Project Engineer Greg Gearhart provided some background.
“Approximately twenty years ago, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality evaluated the small streams that receive the treated wastewater from Clinton, Raymond and Bolton and implemented restrictions which reduced the treatment capacity of all treatment plants, effectively limiting growth to levels that could be exceeded by 2030,” Gearhart points out. “The limitations would be removed if treated flows from all plants were directed to a large river, and the decision was made to launch a regional effort to build a pipeline to carry treated sewage from Clinton, Raymond and Bolton to the Big Black River.”
