Warrenton aldermen last week voted to deny sewer service for a major development proposal in Truesdale. The decision has the potential to halt the project entirely.

Officially called “Truestone,” the proposed development on Veterans Memorial Parkway would add 800 to 1,000 residents to Truesdale, nearly doubling the city’s population. But sewer service for the homes would come from the city of Warrenton’s treatment plant, which local leaders warn will soon reach its operational capacity.

Warrenton aldermen voted unanimously March 3 to turn down sewer service for the Truestone development, after an engineering study found that the sewage treatment plant will be near capacity within the next five to seven years.

Warrenton commissioned the engineering report following the Truestone request. It determined other sewer service agreements and future development coming to Warrenton are going to occupy 80 percent of the treatment plant’s capacity within two years, said Public Works Director Guy Gevers. Capacity is measured by how much sewage the plant can process in a day.

By 2027, engineers estimate the sewage plant will be processing 3.1 million gallons of wastewater  each day, barely shy of the plant’s state operating permit, Gevers said.

Gevers said there isn’t a way to make the treatment systems hold more wastewater than they were built for, or process wastewater faster.The treatment process takes about 24 hours.

Given that information, Warrenton aldermen decided to reserve the treatment plant for development within their own boundaries.

“The highlight of the report (is) to look at the capacity needs within the city limits of Warrenton, which we have obligations already toward. ... Certainly we have a lot of development going on,” said Ward 2 Alderman Gary Auch. “The concern here is that if we allow additional growth to come in from an outside area, we won’t be able to service the projects that we have already committed to.”

Warrenton City Administrator Terri Thorn said the city will have to begin planning for an expansion at the sewage treatment plant to enable future growth.

“For the last 10  years, we have been continually planning for our infrastructure,” Thorn commented. For example, crews have been installing large pipelines to handle higher sewage flow for several years. But the expense and complication of expanding the treatment plant itself will require years more to complete.

“Right now we are anticipating that we will have a capacity increase accomplished by 2027,” Thorn said. “Our engineers tell us that the timeline for a capacity increase is approximately five years, from the day you start until the day it comes online. It’s not an overnight process.”

Thorn said expansion plans need to also take Truesdale’s growth and development into account, so that future projects like Truestone can be accommodated. She said her staff is requesting detailed information from Truesdale officials to help craft those plans.

The Record reached out to Truesdale Mayor Chris Watson for this report. He declined to comment, but said this will likely be  a discussion topic at a future Truesdale Board of Aldermen meeting.

A call to the developers of the Truestone project had not been returned as of press time.