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Clear skies. Low 72F. Winds light and variable.

To assess the success of the city’s 15-year partnership with water/sewer services contractor Suez, Laurel Mayor Johnny Magee doesn’t look at his city. No, he looks at what other municipalities in the state are going through.

For example, Meridian is under a $126 million, 20-year consent decree with the Environmental Protection Agency to resolve deficiencies in its sewer system. Hattiesburg has a 16-year improvement plan, by consent decree, to settle an EPA lawsuit that began in September 2012 when an inspection noted unreported sewer overflows. The city had to pay a civil penalty in a lump sum of $165,000 within 30 days of the signed decree and comply with an aggressive schedule for the rehabilitation of the waste-water collection through a 16-year investment in infrastructure upgrades — at a cost of approximately $45 million.

That’s a drop in the bucket compared to the estimated $2 billion needed in Jackson, which increased rates by 20 percent to fund water and sewer repairs. That’s the first of several substantial planned rate increases in the coming years to help cover consent-decree costs there. The city entered into the decree with the U.S. Department of Justice and EPA in 2013. At the time, Jackson agreed to spend an estimated $400 million to bring its sewer system into compliance with federal water-quality law. Since then, decree costs have more than doubled.

Those situations are in stark contrast to one Laurel and Suez have, Magee noted. On March 2, the city received its report of Inspection of Drinking Water Supply from the state Department of Health on an inspection that was conducted on Feb. 16.

“It stated that, at the time of inspection, the system appeared to be well-maintained and operating properly,” Magee said. “The system’s sanitary survey was performed and no significant deficiencies were found. We received an Overall Capacity Rating of 5.0/5.0.

“You hear people on the street who claim that our water is bad ... the Mississippi State Department of Health says otherwise.”

In September, the state Department of Environmental Quality inspected the city’s two publicly owned treatment plants. Both received high marks from inspectors.

“That is definitely not always the case with all treatment facilities,” Magee said. “Most of the fines and penalties dealing with MDEQ and consent decrees are usually concerning waste water.

“I went into depth with the other cities because, every year when we begin to discuss increasing the water and sewer rates, there is a lot of push-back as to why they should not be raised.

“As you can see, it is rare that when the EPA or the MDEQ comes in to do inspections that there are no negative findings or even monetary penalties.

“Suez has kept us from that situation by professionally handling our water and sewer operations. Make no mistake, it is not inexpensive, but I think the proof shows that we get our money’s worth.”

Suez is required by contract to have a staff of 52, and the company provides various training, both in- house and externally, for employees to maintain their current certifications and to achieve new certifications. Uniforms, personnel safety equipment, safety supplies and outside training are provided for employees at an approximate annual cost of $119,000.

Suez is responsible for any cash shortage that occurs within the management and operation of the City of Laurel’s Customer Service Department, Magee noted, and the company is also responsible for any environmental fines that occur due to the operation of the plants. Suez accepts or shares the liability in many claims due to sewer backups and vehicle damages that are not the responsibility of Suez.

Since the start of the contract with Suez in 2006, Suez has paid more than $600,000 in claims. The company also accepts liability for any vehicle accident in which one of its employees is driving a city vehicle.

“In proving to be a good corporate partner,” Suez contributes $2,000 to the Sawmill Square Fireworks Show, donated $500 to Laurel police’s Night Out Against Crime and also donated 500 Suez coloring books to the police department as giveaways to children during its events. Suez also donated $500 to Laurel-Jones County Dixie Youth Baseball, $2,500 to the City of Laurel for the Dixie Youth World Series and $1,000 to the Ward 1 Mentoring/Scholarship program.

Suez employees who drive a dump truck or the jet truck are required to have commercial driver’s licenses.

Last year, the company sent three employees to the 10- week CDL training at Jones College at a cost of $5,400. Each employee completed the course and obtained CDL Class A license. Suez is required by contract to provide four vehicles to Laurel, but the company is providing nine trucks, two boom trucks and two mowers. Near the end of 2020, an amendment to the contract added a four-man crew to do special projects that the city had previously contracted out to another company.

“This has allowed the city to have substantial savings in this area,” Magee said.

As a few examples, he noted that the crew replaced 54 feet of 16-inch perimeter water main and also installed a new 16-inch valve at East 7th Street and Miss. Avenue. On Queen Street, between Ferrell and Leontyne Price Boulevard, the crew replaced 42 feet of 8-inch sewer main at a depth of seven feet. They replaced 610 feet of cast- iron water main with a new 6-inch water line.

“In this same project, they replaced six water services and meters,” Magee said.

On the Central Avenue Project, from the new roundabout to 5th Avenue, Suez replaced 900 feet of old water main with a new water line and replaced water services and new meters. Three fire hydrants were installed and a sewer service that was 9 feet deep was replaced at 545 Central Ave.

During the year, Suez repaired 1,311 water leaks, located 1,490 lines, repaired and or replaced 30 fire hydrants, did 38 water taps, 25 sewer taps, plugged 112 water or sewer services, unstopped 557 sewers, worked 125 sewer cave-ins and raised eight manholes.

Wastewater Supervisor Mike Votta kept lines of communications open, too, with “pretreatment industries” Masonite, Amick Farms and Sanderson Farms, Magee said.

Wayne Farms approached the city about assisting the company with some up- grades and expansions to the lift station — at proposed cost to the city upward of $300,000, Magee said.

“Since this lift station is used solely by Wayne Farms and the rehab would only benefit Wayne Farms, the administration approached Wayne Farms with the possibility of them taking ownership of the lift station,” he said. “Wayne Farms agreed to examine the offer from the city.”

But not long after, the sale of Wayne Farms to Amick Farms took place.

“In our first meeting at City Hall with the new owners, Amick Farms, we broached the subject with them on the lift station,” Magee said. “We later met at the Amick Farms offices on Wayne Drive and were pleasantly surprised that Amick Farms agreed to accept the lift station and to save the city the cost of its maintenance and rehab ...

“Mike Votta helped to facilitate the ownership transfer of the lift station to Amick Farms. This was completed by council order on Dec. 7.”

A grant of approximately $5 million was awarded to the city to rebuild the levees at Smyly and Massey lagoons. During the past year, the Massey Wastewater Treatment Plant treated more than 1.5 billion gallons of sewage and the Smyly plant treated almost 1.7 billion gallons.

On the other side of the operation, the Water Production Department produced more than 2.6 billion gallons of water. The city’s four elevated tanks continue under contract with a division of Suez, Utility Service Company. This contract provides for inspections and maintenance that fulfills compliance with the state Department of Health. The Customer Service Department collected $14,632,055 during the year — an amount that exceeded the budget by $704,686. The city again raised water and sewer rates by 3 percent.

“The reason that we have a slight increase on an annual basis is that the public utility fund in which the water and sewer operates out of is what is called an enterprise fund, meaning that it must pay for itself, from user fees,” Magee explained. “That means each time we replace a water line, it must come from this fund; whenever we replace a sewer line, it must be paid for out of this fund; when we repair a sewer cave-in, it comes from this fund; when we spend $400,000 a year to clean sludge out of the wastewater plant, it must be paid for from this fund.”

Salaries of all Suez employees, vehicles and equipment must come from the fund, too.

“Since the administration has strived to repair the water and sewer underground before doing major street projects,” Magee added, “these repairs must come from this fund.”

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