By By Fredie Carmichael / staff writer
June 6, 2002
The central district commissioner of the Mississippi Public Service Commission announced Wednesday that his board has given approval for the Dalewood Sewer District to operate.
Nielsen Cochran said that the PSC voted unanimously to grant a certificate of public convenience and necessity to the district because it was a needed service in the Dalewood area.
Cochran added that evidence included photos of residents dumping raw sewage from their homes directly into Dalewood Lake.
Cochran's announcement comes more than a year after the Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors created the Dalewood Sewer District.
The Dalewood Sewer District then had to seek the PSC approval to provide a wastewater collection and treatment system in the Dalewood Shores Lake area.
Supporters and opponents of the proposal presented their sides to the three-member PSC panel in a hearing in Jackson last month.
In the end, Cochran said, he understood that opponents didn't want to be forced to use the new system. But, he said, the PSC had no jurisdiction in that issue; he said the PSC had to decide whether the district was needed.
Last year, when the supervisors voted on the new sewer district, District 1 Supervisor Hank Florey abstained from voting because he owns property within the district. District 5 Supervisor Ray Boswell voted against the district's appointments.
Boswell said today he opposed the district because he didn't want people who had a good sewer system to be forced to join the new district.
Cochran said it will be up to the five appointed commissioners of the new sewer district to vote on which residents can opt out and not join the system.
The commissioners of the new district could not be reached for comment about how much it will cost to join the new system.
For the residents in opposition of the new sewer district, Cochran said they missed their opportunity by failing to petition the supervisors' decision last year.
Cochran said residents have 30 days to appeal the PSC's decision at a chancery court.