By Bill Grubb
News Editor

ROGERSVILLE - Rogersville will pay an $11,000 "non-contingent civil penalty" and promises to take action to improve water quality under terms of an agreement with the state.
    The terms of the "Agreed Order" with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation Division of Water Supply were  approved by the Board of Mayor and Aldermen Jan. 12.
    The agreement also notes the municipal water system will pay an additional $9,000 if it fails to present a plan and take action to address water quality issues.
    The city had been appealing  a July 2008 Director's Order from the Division of Water Supply which included a maximum $25,000 penalty.  According to the state, on 10 separate occasions beginning in Jan. 2005 the system exceeded the maximum level for Haloacetic acids (HAA5).
    Information from the Environmental Protection Agency states high Haloacetic Acids levels do not pose an immediate risk to an individual's health. However, "some people who drink water containing Haloacetic Acids in excess of the standards over many years may have an increased risk of getting cancer."
     Rogersville "enters into this Agreed Order solely for reasons of compromise of the pending claim, to avoid costly litigation, and in order to fully cooperate with the State of Tennessee in this matter," according to the agreement.
    Although the municipal water quality currently meets standards, according to Water Superintendent Jim Bible, the water commissioner recently agreed to hire an engineer to work with the system to make certain the problem does not recur.
    In other business, the BMA approved a low bid of $10,994 from Tele-Optics, of Kingsport, for security cameras for the Rogersville City Park.  The company also installed a surveillance system at the Rogersville City School. A second bid of $39,112.86 was received from i-sys, a Knoxville firm.
    Officials hope the cameras will curb vandalism to park equipment, with the most recent incident occurring in December when vandals cause several thousand dollars worth of damage to Christmas displays.
    The board also re-appointed Rebecca Keith, Larry Humbert, Elizabeth Bible, Annette Beach and Jeff Gunter to the Rogersville Tree board and gave final approval to ordinances amending the town's sewer ordinance and rezoning the former warehouse property on Reno Street for a residential Planned Unit Development complex.