The Fayette County Board of Education may need to re-consider a sewer agreement with Tyrone to use up to 45,000 gallons per day of capacity.

The Jenkins Road school complex is currently using 24,000 gallons and, even with a full population of students and staff, would likely not need the capacity agreed on in late 2006. School system staff will evaluate the issue before bringing a recommendation back to the board.

Explaining the issue in a May 1 letter, Facilities Director Mike Satterfield at the May 3 meeting noted a four-year intergovernmental agreement between the school system and Tyrone from December 2006 where the town agreed to reserve 45,000 gallons per day (GPD) of sewer treatment capacity for use at the Jenkins Road complex, the current home to 3,200 students and staff at Burch Elementary School, Flat Rock Middle School and Sandy Creek High School.

The agreement with Tyrone noted that any unused portion of the 45,000 GPD would revert back to the town.

Satterfield said that, based upon current flow rates of 24,000 gallons, the Jenkins Road Complex would likely average 30,000 GPD once full capacity of 4,000 students and staff is achieved at build-out. The previously anticipated increase in students/staff population will not be reached in four years due to the economic downturn, Satterfield said.

A portion of the future sewer capacity to be used for the school system involved the potential for running a sewer line to Tyrone Elementary. Asked by board member Marion Key if that was still a part of the plan, Satterfield said there were no plans for the project at this time.

“That (current student/staff population) is probably going to stay level for the next two, three or even four years,” Satterfield told the board. “So we would need to amend the contract.”

Satterfield suggested a review of actual GPD figures over the next six months to a year, a period still within the four-year time frame that will end in December 2010, before making a determination.

If current student/staff population conditions continue at the end of the review and if projected to continue, the school system could give back 10,000 GPD and possibly another 5,000 GPD, Satterfield suggested.