www.roanoke.com

BLACKSBURG — Sewers are boring. But money is interesting.

And this story is about a lot of money. It's also about trees, traffic hassles, streams, Brown Farm park, development, growth, people's yards, 3,500 new houses and, of course, sewage.

But don't forget about the money.

Let's start with the big bucks: housing developments.

Developers buy land, build houses on it, give it a cute name and sell it to people for a lot of money. Then the town taxes the people who bought the new houses.

That has been happening a lot in Blacksburg lately, and there's no sign that it's going to stop. The town's leaders approved a big plan that says there's a lot of room left for a lot more houses - as many as 3,500 more in the Toms Creek Basin.

If 3,500 houses sell for an average of $250,000 each, they would total more than $875 million. That would bring in $1.75 million in town real estate taxes every year.

New houses mean money, but they also mean new sewage.

You can't keep adding toilets to Blacksburg's sewer system forever. Sooner or later it gets full, and recently it's been spilling over in some places. Twenty-two locations exceeded capacity during a recent heavy rain, when rainwater illegally channeled into the sewers increased the flow.

It's not a health crisis yet, but it's bad enough to make town staff suggest stopping the approval of some new developments.

Though some people dispute just how full the sewer is, town officials say it's time to make it bigger.

On Tuesday, town council will hear fromresidents, and on July 8 it is scheduled to decide how to proceed.

Town staff has suggested four plans of action.

The plans all have something in common: They all cost millions, and every sewer user in town - even those who never go near Toms Creek - is going to pay a piece of that.

Option 1 - building a sewer system through the Toms Creek basin - is the most expensive, the most controversial and one of the most likely choices.

Why is it a favorite? Because its price tag includes laying the groundwork for the future and Mayor Roger Hedgepeth says council should be thinking about the future.

Town staff says it is the only plan that prepares the town for future development west of the bypass - which is where much of Blacksburg's developable land is, i.e. where the money is.

Making way for future money means spending a lot of today's money. The town says this plan will cost $11.3 million. Opponents say it's a lot more, maybe $17 million. Either way, all Blacksburg sewer customers will pay for it - their sewer bills go up by an average of $56.88 a year. Additionally, connection fees for new customers would be raised substantially.

This is also the plan that involves the trees, the Brown Farm park, streams and yards - all of which would have to be dug up to put in the 12 miles of pipes. Everywhere the pipe goes, all trees within 10 feet on each side will be cut down. Another 10 feet on each side will be used as a working area.

That's why this is the plan that upsets people like Chuck and Mary Houska.

"All of these would go," they said, pointing at the trees around their home. "All of these would go."

"It's taken us a lifetime to grow them and, of course, if they take 'em down, we'll never see them again in our lifetime," said Chuck Houska.

Their stately home is surrounded by woods, gardens, a pond and two streams. If this plan goes forward, sewer lines will follow each stream and meet near the edge of a marshy, wooded area. They'll join into one pipe and keep going, all the way down to the town's new Brown Farm park, where they will join a larger collector line that runs along Toms Creek.

Because this collector crosses the creek 15 times, environmentalists are concerned about overflows, like those that have polluted Tinker Creek in the Roanoke valley.

In all, four lines will join this collector line, which will take sewage to a pump station to lift it up to a large trunk line running to the sewer plant.

"In order to have urban development, you need to have infrastructure," said Joe Gorman, a former town councilman and county supervisor. He's been trying to get a sewer system in the Toms Creek Basin for decades.

"This sewer line, yes, it'll make development easier," he said. "But why should somebody be denied the right to make money off his land?"

"People are coming to Blacksburg. You gotta have some place for 'em to go."

The other most likely plan, Option 2, is a dark horse, not even on the table a month or two ago.

It was Councilman Tom Sherman's idea: Run a new pipeline along the U.S. 460 Bypass, through land less ecologically sensitive than Toms Creek and less financially sensitive than Main Street and University City Boulevard.

Town staff estimates that this project would cost $2 million to $4 million, meaning sewer bills could increase $43.20 a year on average.

This plan even appeals to David Scheim, an opponent of almost everything else the town has come up with, especially option number one.

With the bypass option, he sees the chance to take care of the existing problems without running pipes through Toms Creek Basin. Future growth, he believes, can be handled by small, alternative sewer systems placed near future developments.

"It's definitely possible," said Scheim. "They haven't begun to explore this."

These alternative systems, similar to one in use at The Village at Toms Creek, were recommended by a town working group which spent months looking at sewerage alternatives.

The town's estimate for one such solution - 11 sand filter and drip dispersal systems - is in the range of $4 million to $11 million. Some council members have raised concerns about the long-term maintenance cost of these systems.

The remaining two plans seem to have no fans.

Option 3 would require digging up North Main Street, University City Boulevard and other streets to upgrade existing sewer lines.

Scott Wade, of Wade's Foods on North Main Street, has already asked council to dump this idea, saying it would wreak "incredible disruption." Council seems to agree.

Plus, at $6.1 million, it's the second most expensive project, expected to raise sewer bills by an average $62.64 a year.

Option 4 is the lagoon plan, which even fans of lagoons don't like. It would replace nine pump stations with seven lagoons. Instead of pumping the sewage into the system, the town would treat it in the lagoons. Far below the surface of these small ponds, the sewage would be naturally purified. The water left over from this process would be dispersed just below the surface in nearby fields, including the Brown Farm park.

At $4.1 million - $43.20 added to an average yearly sewer bill - this plan seems like a bargain, but council seems reluctant to tell residents they will suddenly be living next to sewer lagoons.

Council members have been joking about the amount of coffee they'll need Tuesday night.

They've scheduled 2 1 / 2 hours for residents to talk about sewers, beginning at 4 p.m. However, they suspect that some may also want to talk about sewers at the regular 7:30 p.m. meeting.

It could be a long night.

After all, a lot of new homes, streets, yards, trees and, of course, money are at stake.