Featured Project
City of Meridian Wastewater Consent Decree
Wastewater, Utilities, Strategic Services
Meridian, Mississippi
Waggoner was retained by the City of Meridian to provide comprehensive program management services for Meridian’s 19-year Wastewater Consent Decree, a mandate by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to address chronic sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs) and ensure long-term compliance with environmental regulations. This decree, issued in 2019, represents a collaborative commitment between the City, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, the EPA Region 4, and the US Department of Justice to safeguard public health and the environment by eliminating SSOs and restoring the City’s Wastewater Collection and Transmission System (WCTS) and Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs).
At the heart of Waggoner’s role is an in-depth environmental services approach, aimed at ensuring regulatory compliance while minimizing the program’s ecological footprint. Our team has been instrumental in planning, investigating, and managing essential repairs to Meridian’s aging wastewater infrastructure, leveraging environmental expertise to conduct rigorous assessments, develop data-driven strategies, and implement solutions that enhance system resilience and sustainability. Each intervention not only addresses the current issues within the WCTS and WWTPs but also builds the framework for proactive environmental stewardship, reducing pollutant discharge and protecting regional waterways.
Key to this program are the nine Capacity, Management, Operations, and Maintenance (CMOM) programs Waggoner is developing, each designed to guide the City in operating and maintaining its publicly owned treatment works (POTW) sustainably. These CMOMs encompass best practices and long-term strategies that promote environmental resilience, including proactive maintenance, emergency response plans, and performance optimization measures to meet or exceed compliance standards well beyond the Consent Decree’s current completion date in 2039.
Additionally, Waggoner’s strategic services division plays a critical role in securing state and federal funding, advocating for the City’s environmental initiatives, and ensuring the program’s financial viability. Through these efforts, over $12 million in construction projects have been successfully completed as of 2023, with another $46 million allocated toward projects in various stages of planning, design, and pre-construction to address system deficiencies. These investments are essential to fulfilling the decree’s requirements, protecting local ecosystems, and enabling the City to transition from reactive to preventive environmental management practices.
2039
Current completion date of the
19-year Consent Decree
Waggoner’s Goal
Waggoner’s goal is to complete the requirements of the Consent Decree as efficiently as possible and transfer the wastewater improvements and CMOM responsibilities to the City, leaving the City with a sustainable sewer system in regulatory compliance with an improved level of service that exceeds customers’ expectations.
Our comprehensive, environmentally focused approach underscores commitment to both regulatory compliance and ecological sustainability, ensuring that Meridian’s infrastructure improvements not only meet immediate needs but also promote a legacy of environmental responsibility.
Key Components
- Regulatory Compliance
- Collection and Transmission System Evaluation
- Wastewater Treatment Plant Evaluation
- Pump Station Upgrades and Automation
- Sanitary Sewer Overflow (SSO) Response Elimination
- Wastewater Treatment Plant Improvements
- Funding Support
- Design, Bidding, and Construction Management
- Information Management Systems
- Asset Management
- Fats, Oils and Grease (FOG) Control
- Financing and Cost Analysis
- Public Works Support
- Legal Support
- Emergency Response
- Pump Station and Force Main Operations and Preventative Maintenance
- Gravity Sewer System Operations and Maintenance
- Sewer Mapping (Geographical Information System)
- Sanitary Sewer Overflow Response