The Water Works and Sewer board of the City of Prichard has announced the start of its five-year public-private partnership with Severn Trent Services on December 1. Under the agreement, Severn Trent is responsible for the complete operation, maintenance and management of the City of Prichard’s water and wastewater facilities, collection and distribution systems, meter reading, billing and customer service functions. The five-year contract was awarded to Severn Trent following a competitive bid process that concluded in September.
Prior to entering into an initial partnership with Severn Trent in 2007 for operation of the City’s wastewater facility, the board was operating under a strict consent order from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management and experiencing significant operational challenges.
The partnership between the board and Severn Trent will continue to benefit the City and its 26,000 residents in a number of ways. Since the inception of this partnership, plant performance has dramatically improved, allowing the Board and its engineer to concentrate on capital improvement planning. Prichard has already benefited from improved operations and performance that include:
-Reducing solids inventory
-Improving discharge quality
-Introducing an asset management program
-identifying capital improvement projects
-Installing a comprehensive computerized maintenance management that schedules predictive and preventive maintenance