ROBERTSDALE, Ala. -- City officials in Robertsdale hope improvements in the way the city collects and disposes of sludge, along with improvements to the city’s piping system, will help alleviate overflow problems.

Robertsdale city engineer Greg Smith said the city has signed on with a local contractor and has applied for a Community Development Block Grant in hopes of alleviating the city’s sewer overflow problems.

In May, Smith presented a municipal water pollution prevention annual report which was approved by the Robertsdale City Council and presented to the Alabama Department of Environmental Management’s Municipal Section Water Division in Montgomery.

Points are generated which are intended to communicate to ADEM and the governing body the actions necessary to prevent violations. Out of a possible 783, the city accumulated 74 points, according to the report.

The city received one maximum point accumulation pertaining to the collection and disposal of sludge, which accounted for 50 of the 74 points accumulated.

The city currently stores sludge on a 3.5 acre lined lagoon. Originally constructed in 1979, the lagoon has not needed to be cleaned out since then, according to the report.

The points were accumulated because the city does not have access to and approval for sufficient land disposal site to provide proper land disposal.

“It is a very expensive process,” Smith said. Instead the city uses enzymes and bacteria to digest the sludge. “We could aerate the pond and it would digest even further, reducing the need for off-site disposal.”

Smith said the hope is by reducing the amount of raw sewage the treatment plant must process, it will eliminate the need to increase the capacity of the plant.

Right now, the plant is capable of processing 950,000 gallons per day, Smith said. On average during the month of July, the city was processing more than 1 million gallons per day.

That, in part was due to unusually heavy rainfall, Smith said.

“Our average rainfall per year is approximately 60 inches,” he said. “Just in July, depending on where you measured, we received as much as 20 to 25 inches. That’s more than a third of our yearly rain totals.”

The result was weekly, sometimes daily overflow events, most occurring into Rock Creek.

A city project that began in May will hopefully alleviate the problem, he said.

“We are currently working to replace the 8-inch line located west of College Avenue and south of Carolina Street with a 10-inch line,” he said. The hope is by replacing the line it will reduce the overflow and help with sewer collection capabilities.

Approximately 1,500 feet of new piping was installed on the west side of College and, after getting an easement from the Baldwin County Board of Education, city crews are working to complete an additional 1,000 feet on the east side.

With the CDBG grant, the city hopes to make further improvements in some of the city’s lower income areas, Smith said.