Compliance problems with area water systems underscore the need to invest in infrastructure, both at sewer plants and with drinking water supplies.

Problems at Ponder’s sewer plant triggered plans for a new system that screens and removes bulky items that travel into the plant with the wastewater.

Ponder public works director Gary Morris proposed the system, which will cost about $250,000. He said it was more important than other public works projects the Town Council was considering.

In 2005, the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Infrastructure Report Card gave sewer systems nationwide a D-minus, saying that more than $181 billion was needed for improvements to aging and undersized systems. Cities regularly put off maintenance and improvement projects because they can’t afford them, jeopardizing human health and safety, as well as gains in economic development, the report said.

Without the added screening, cotton swabs, tampons, condoms and other trash get in the system, take too long to break down and clog the pumps, Morris said.

“We had a beeper in there once. I don’t know how it got there,” Morris said.

The council agreed earlier this month, and Ponder will tap bonds issued in 2004 to pay for the project.

“We’re trying to do the right thing,” Morris said.

Ponder is one of four Denton County governments the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has fined for sewage problems since January 2007.

In February 2007, a 25-year-old concrete sewer line spilled 100,000 gallons of raw sewage in Corinth, triggering an assessment of other lines in that city. Corinth was able to direct its assessed fine to a local program that helps families with failing septic systems, Acting City Manager Don Locke said.

As part of a 2007 settlement with the TCEQ over a violation three years earlier, the city of Aubrey, which was already upgrading its sewer system, connected several more homes to the system at no cost to the homeowners, Public Works Director Kenneth Faulkner said.

And the Upper Trinity Regional Water District agreed to organize another hazardous waste collection drive after inspectors found it had released too much ammonia nitrogen from its Riverbend sewer plant near Aubrey in September 2007.

The engineers’ report card also rated drinking water systems across the country with a D-minus and called for another $151 billion in improvements to those systems.

Moreover, that amount would not address demand for new systems, the report said.

Roanoke was fined when that city got behind with its project, according to its public works director, Cody Petree. Roanoke has begun another $3 million tower and $2 million in water lines, but the state recently cited the city for not having enough water for each household tapped into its system.

Roanoke also took over Marshall Creek’s water system when that town dissolved last year. Marshall Creek’s $13,300 fine was the highest among public entities for violating state rules meant to keep drinking water safe. Inspectors found a host of violations, including no evidence that the drinking water had been regularly tested for contaminants.

Marshall Creek filed for bankruptcy and dissolved, and Roanoke voters agreed to annex the area in November.

Roanoke sent a crew to take care of the water problems in Marshall Creek.

“That was pretty simple,” Petree said.

The city will soon close the water well that serves former Marshall Creek residents and tie them into Roanoke’s system.

PEGGY HEINKEL-WOLFE can be reached at 940-566-6881. Her e-mail address is pheinkel-wolfe@dentonrc.com.