County, Callaway at impasse on lift station

PANAMA CITY — It seemed so close.
Bay County Commissioner Bill Dozier made a motion, seconded by George Gainer, on Tuesday stating the Advanced Wastewater Treatment (AWT) group would pay for a trial run — between six months and a year — of chemical pretreatment to Callaway’s system to see if it would solve the hydrogen sulfide issues at the Cherry Street lift station. Dozier added that if the trial treatment was successful, Callaway would be responsible for implementing treatment for the city’s system.
But that drew a negative reaction from Callaway city commissioners. Callaway Mayor Thomas Abbott explained that if the treatment required $100,000 worth of chemicals, as Callaway was estimating, it still might not be cost effective for the city.
“It seems like we don’t want to do anything if it obligates us to do anything,” Bay County Commissioner Mike Thomas said.
The second to the motion was withdrawn, so no vote was taken, and moments later the County Commission adjourned, with Dozier stating an impasse had been reached.
“It seemed redundant to even vote on it,” Gainer said. “I wanted the people of Callaway to be comfortable with it.”
The city and county have been at odds since October over hydrogen sulfide at the lift station, which emits the smell of rotten eggs. The county started the conflict resolution process July 15. The public meeting Tuesday was the second step in the process.
The next step would be mediation. Callaway City Manager Michael Fuller expects a mediator to be selected and a date to be set within the next two weeks in an attempt to settle the dispute.
“I’m still optimistic,” Abbott said. “There was a lot of agreement on both sides.”
Abbott said the disagreement on the proposed motion was confusion about how much the chemical treatment would cost. County Manager Ed Smith said the county estimated the treatment to cost between $7 and $10 per day, although that would just be at the Allanton lift station, where the county believes the low-flow problems are worst. A cost of about $2,500 a day for the entire system would be much more in line with Callaway’s cost estimate.“It’s still not clear,” Abbott said. “Were we talking about a specific area?”
Despite Tuesday’s impasse, Gainer remained optimistic.
“It’s possible to make one more run at it,” Gainer said of an agreement. “It would be regrettable if we ended up in a lawsuit. It’s a waste when one government entity sues another government entity.”