By By Sheila Blackmon/The Meridian Star
April 16, 2001
Lauderdale County supervisors' decision to create a Dalewood sewer district could depend heavily on a public hearing scheduled today.
Supervisors approved the district's creation last month, but rescinded it after discovering a petition filed by the Dalewood Property Owners Association was not legal.
Two supervisors said last week they will not vote to form the district Monday if it means forcing homeowners with adequate sewage systems to join it.
District 3 Supervisor Craig Hitt asked attorney Rick Barry to find out if supervisors could add a restriction within the district if they form it.
Barry said he would look into it before the hearing.
District 1 Supervisor Hank Florey has abstained from voting because he owns property at Dalewood.
Dalewood homeowners turned out to support the district at the last public hearing held before the process started over. Two or three people out of about 50 spoke against it. Many of the rest spoke in favor. They said it will increase their property values.
Charlie Busler of the Mississippi State Department of Health said many of the individual septic tanks and field lines at Dalewood do not meet current standards. He said the septic tanks and field lines pose a health risk.
Dalewood homeowner Raymond Huffmaster said he will attend today's public hearing.
Huffmaster said he took 10 samples from the lake at Dalewood.
He said the desirable number in a sample for fecal coliform is 200 parts per 100 milliliters for swimming. The permissible number is 1,000. The desirable amount for boating and fishing is 1,000 and the permissible number is 5,000. Drinking water can't have any. He said he got the figures from the Mississippi State water criteria for interstate and coastal waters.
The Mississippi State Chemical Laboratory confirmed there was no contamination by sewage in the samples, which are safe for boating, fishing and swimming, Huffmaster said. He said the officials also confirmed these samples could "possibly serve as a source for drinking water."
Of the other five samples, the highest number of fecal coliform found was eight. It was zero at the end of East Overlook Road and at the end of Louise Drive. It was four at the end of Alice Drive and eight at the end of Catherine Drive and at the back bridge which means the water is safe for everything but drinking, Huffmaster said.
He said his and probably most of the other residents' drinking water comes the Toomsuba water system, not out of the lake at Dalewood.
Sheila Blackmon is a staff writer for The Meridian Star. E-mail her at sblackmon@themeridianstar.com.