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Septic Dumping Rates May Soon Be Going Up In The Tall City 9/6/12
CBS 7 News
Robert Guaderrama
rguaderrama@cbs7.com
September 6, 2012
MIDLAND, TX – Staff of one department in the Tall City are concerned about a growing problem at the city's Waste Water Plant. City staff is now asking that city leaders step up to help them. 8 am and a line of commercial septic trucks are already waiting to empty at Midland Waste Water Plant.
"The low rates make us a central points for folks to wanna come to deposit their materials," said Jim Nichols, Midland Assistant City Manager.
But the demand is causing problems for the plant staff.
"We're getting folks from all over coming to Midland, which causes lines, backups and even some aggressive behavior among some of the drivers," said Nichols.
Drivers we spoke to off camera say those who are the troublemakers are the drivers who are paid commission by the number of loads they can empty and city staff believe the low rate of 10 dollars to dump is to blame for the traffic.
"Only now that there's a huge demand on the system we're realizing part of that demand is being created by the low rates that's why we're reevaluating and looking to adjust them," said Nichols.
City staff is asking that city council approve a city ordinance change that will limit who can empty at the plant and how much they will pay.
"We'd like to limit the folks who have access to the plant to those in Midland County and other political jurisdictions that we has agreements with and we're looking to increase our rates from 10 dollars per load and being that up to 25 dollars per load," said Nichols, he continues, “We're looking at this measure just as something we can do quickly and that will help regulate the traffic and issues that our staff have to deal with."
City leaders tell us that they could raise the rate even more in the future, of course that increase may be trickled down to consumers. We attempted to call septic service companies, however non were available to comment on this story. City council will consider the ordinance at their next meeting this coming Tuesday.
Here’s how Midland compares to other cities that collect septic waste in the region. Midland currently charges $10 while Big Spring charges $25. Lubbock charges $35 and San Angelo charges $75.