Just as Chapel Hill was getting a handle on water supply, the issue of waste water became an issue.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen heard from the town’s consulting engineer, Greg Davenport, last week about choices for the future of the system.

The town’s current treatment plant was built in 1989 with a capacity of 170,000 gallons of wastewater treated per day.

During periods of wet weather when storm water is flowing into the plant as well, the plant reaches capacity.

The town could not do anything, which would mean a moratorium on development requiring sewer service would have to stay in place, expand the current waste water treatment facility, or build a new one entirely.

All of the plans come with costs.

Davenport estimated that capacity at the current plant could be increased to 260,000 gallons per day with some renovation but that the lagoon system to town currently uses is inefficient and that the town would eventually encounter issues with the state for an additional discharge permit for the Duck River.

That option he estimated with a $2.1 million price tag.

For an estimated $6.5 million, the town could build a more efficient electro-mechanical plant with a 500,000 gallon per day capacity, which would serve well into the future. That option would also be expandable up to one million gallons per day in the future.

Any solution, he estimated, would take a year for plans and permits to be secured and a further two years for construction.

Aldermen will further discuss the issue in coming weeks.