Opinion ID: 1767459
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: water and sewer services

Text: The proposed annexation area is presently served by several local rural water associations and private enterprises certificated by the Mississippi Public Service Commission. Of the 23 square miles in the proposed Lamar County annexation area, only four square miles are not certificated by the Public Service Commission. Evidence revealed that this system is adequate for domestic water supply. If Hattiesburg were to annex the area, the city could not improve on the water service unless it acquired the private water associations or worked out an agreement with them. As of the time of the trial, Hattiesburg had made no such arrangements with the private water associations and certificated areas. Lamar County provides sewage service to its residents pursuant to a 201 Facilities Plan, a program of the Bureau of Pollution Control and the Environmental Protection Agency in cooperation with the state government in an effort to provide sewer collection and treatment to several areas via a central sewage treatment facility. Those political subdivisions in the area participating in the program include Hattiesburg, Petal, Lamar County, and Forrest County. The city presently collects sewage from the Lamar Park certificated area and the Westover subdivision in Lamar County by agreement between Hattiesburg and the private Lamar County sewage treatment plants. Many residents also have their own septic tanks. Experts testified that the current sewage system was adequate and presented no health problem to the area. Henderson, the sanitarian for Lamar County, testified that the soil allowed sufficient percolation. The chancellor correctly found that there was no credible evidence showing the inadequacy of these systems.