By Matthew Ralph
That whiff of sewage residents in the Greenacres and Lincoln Heights areas of Clarksville have had to endure on the hottest summer days won’t be as bad next summer if a new plan to reduce odor at the wastewater treatment plant is successful.
The Clarksville Town Council approved a $150,250 contract with a company called Aquasource Inc. on Monday night to install equipment that will employ a chemical process to treat wastewater before it enters the plant.
The process, as described by three representatives of the company to the council on Monday night, oxidizes the hydrogen sulfide — a chemical compound that produces smells typically associated with rotten eggs and raw sewage.
Councilman Greg Isgrigg said he is hopeful that the new approach to combating the odor will give the sewer plant’s neighbors a break from the smell next summer.
He said a test run of the process last summer produced positive results and that communities and companies much larger than Clarksville have had success with it.
“I think it will work,” Isgrigg said.
In other business
• Approval was given to the forming of a committee to explore the possible creation of a historic preservation district that would include the area in the western part of the town near the waterfront that was the original settlement of the community. Sharon Wilson, the town’s planning director, told the council that the area is an important archaeological site that needs to be preserved.
“We have to know where we came from to know where we are going,” Wilson said.
• A $856 grant from the town’s stormwater fund was approved to fund a field trip for Parkwood Elementary School fifth-graders to Bernheim Forest in Kentucky for an educational program about water conservation. A similar grant request was approved for a George Rogers Clark Elementary School trip to Bernheim Forest for the same educational program in June.
