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BLACKSBURG - Who knew contracting with an engineering firm to do an independent study of Blacksburg's sewer system - where are all the pipes, how big are they and how much sewage can they safely carry - would be so complicated?

Blacksburg Town Council decided at a retreat in August that the first step in addressing the town's sewer issues was conducting an independent analysis of the entire system. It sounds simple enough. But at a Tuesday work session, Councilman Paul Lancaster, who serves on the committee that is negotiating the contract, Planning and Engineering Director Adele Schirmer and Public Works Director Kelly Mattingly presented council with several questions.

"The committee is trying to come up with the best groundwork without clogging up" the process, Lancaster said.

One major issue was who the consultant will answer to - staff, council or a new resident-led utilities committee?

It's an important question for some members of council and staff who were accused last year of bias by opponents of a plan to build a conventional sewer through the mostly rural Toms Creek basin.

The study will include some developments in the basin such as the Village at Toms Creek system, which empties its sewage into town lines, Interim Town Manager Marc Verniel said. But most of the basin will be exempt from the study.

And there are technical questions such as how to figure in future growth. Will the study look at the system's capacity for the next five years? Ten years? Longer? Will it look at capacity in wet and dry weather? Will it figure in the size of rain storms?

"Part of this issue is we've got to hit a moving target," said Councilman Tom Sherman.

In the end, council made little headway on the questions but did decide to convene the first meeting of the seven-member utilities committee, which was created in August to get more residents involved. Council designated Mattingly as the committee's technical adviser.

Mayor Roger Hedgepeth and Vice Mayor Ron Rordam were absent from the session.