VALLEY GRANDE — The Valley Grande City Council approved measures to improve the city’s wastewater treatment system this week, in the name of environmental protection.

Andrew Wakeford, who works for Enviro Management Corporation out of Birmingham, spoke to the Valley Grande City Council on Monday about changes needed to the city’s sewage treatment facility.

Valley Grande Mayor Wayne Labbe said the city has worked with EMC to make sure the treatment facility

“We contract with them to monitor our sewer system, it’s output and things like that. You have to chlorinate the water and then de-chlorinate the water before it is pumped out in to a stream,” Labbe said. “The chlorination is a little high coming out of the system and the oxidation is not high enough, and so he came to speak to us about different ways we could handle that.”

The council approved $1,500 in changes to the system Wakeford suggested would help to bring the chlorination and oxidation levels of the water in line with what is expected.

“This is the closest we’ve been to having this system in compliance, and we’ve been making continuous improvements on it,” Labbe said.

Labbe said the new system would have an automatic chlorinator, similar to those used in backyard swimming pools.

“Basically we are upgrading to a tab system, so that his guys can put the tabs in there which will continuously chlorinate the water,” Labbe said.

He added the current chlorination and oxidation levels are not far from the levels recommended by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management.

“We have been much further off than this in the past. We’ve been working with ADEM since I became mayor, and we are almost there. It’s not a big issue,” Labbe said.

Labbe said the city has gotten leniency from ADEM on the issue, as they have been trying to remedy the long-standing situation.

“With ADEM, as long as you have a plan and are working toward it, they are very understanding, and when you have a company like EMC working with you, they really respect that,” he said.