BRYAN, Texas — The City of College Station has proposed a potential sewer line to be placed along Rosemary Drive in Bryan. College Station Mayor John Nichols said this plan has been discussed for several years with the City of Bryan.
The mayor's statement can be found below.
"We understand the Bryan City Council’s keen interest in this project and that they are responding to the concerns of their citizens. We’ve been in constant communication with all parties and have worked with the City of Bryan on this for years.
At this stage, we are also in regular contact with the residents. They’ve been helpful and excellent to work with, despite their very understandable concerns. Staff continues to evaluate all options and has recommended a route that removes the lift station due to the initial and ongoing costs to our ratepayers.
While lift stations are a part of any major gravity system, and we use them when necessary, we prefer and strive to achieve gravity flow whenever possible. The alternate route in the preliminary engineering report, supported by the Rosemary HOA during earlier talks and a meeting with our staff, allows us to avoid using the Rosemary right-of-way while removing the lift station. We believe that option shows the most promise but continue to evaluate the others.
Regardless of the route, we have chosen to use boring where appropriate to reduce the project’s impact and eliminate trenching where practical. We will continue working with the impacted residents, regardless of the route eventually selected. These types of projects have occurred and will continue to do so, and we understand the challenges for everyone involved. That’s especially true where geographic boundaries and topography create technical challenges.
Both cities try to minimize impacts to all residents, but there are many cases where infrastructure that only serves one city must pass through the other. We remain committed to finding solutions to these situations with the City of Bryan to lessen the impact on the citizens and ratepayers of both cities. City of Bryan staff did an outstanding job answering many of the technical questions during their Wednesday meeting. We’ll continue working with them to find a solution that works for everyone."
On Wednesday, Feb. 22, the Bryan City Council hosted a special council meeting where residents in the Rosemary-Beverly Estates neighborhood expressed their concerns for the sewer line. Mylinda Hallerman, who has lived in the area for nearly 13 years, said that she believes the reason for the line's installation is due to the growth that Northgate has experienced.
“They need a place to send their poop and it seems like the place they want to send their poop is Bryan’s most beautiful, historic neighborhood," said Hallerman.
Former Mayor of Bryan, Andrew Nelson, also spoke at Wednesday's meeting showing his support for both cities but claiming that the issue has become divisive.
“As a former mayor, I would’ve never even considered this," said Nelson.
One of the alternative proposals that saw heavy discussion in the meeting was the option for the City of College Station to utilize their lift station for water filtration purposes rather than the construction of a new line.
Jayson Barfknecht, the Public Works Director for the City of Bryan, shared that lift stations have modernized in recent years.
“You have the lift station to be able to provide that service and over time pumps have gotten better, the technology has gotten better, which makes them more reliable," said Barfknecht.
Nearly every member of the Bryan City Council weighed in on the discussion, asking questions to better understand the citizens' concerns, as well as weigh the impacts of potential steps going forward.