A sewer lawsuit filed against the town of Monterey six months ago expected to be settled.
The environmental group Tennessee Riverkeeper sued Monterey, alleging overflow issues in the sewer department. Monterey City Attorney Evan Wright said TDEC has provided a letter stating that Monterey is in compliance with environmental regulations.
“I have been in communications with them (Riverkeepers), and I believe we have a resolution to sort of put all this away,” Wright said. “I don’t want to say for certain that that’s gonna be the case, but we believe the lines of communication have been open and we are gonna be able to resolve this.”
Wright said that Riverkeepers made a demand some 60 days ago regarding the water treatment plant, and the town has addressed those demands. Wright said, for the most part, he believes the town has addressed the substance of the lawsuit.
“Most of this stuff was resolved whenever you brought your new treatment plant online,” Wright said. “So, a lot of it is sort of old hat, so you know, the town of Monterey has had a consent on what they call a consent order from TDEC in place in the past. That’s really all we are doing here. That’s the direction we are headed here.”
“It’s regrettable, in my opinion, that this is where we are and that we are gonna spend some resources on this,” Wright said. “But you know we have to deal with it, and it’s sort of the growing pains for our little town here.”