Carolina Water's sewer system needs nearly $10 million in repairs.

A private, Lexington County sewage treatment system is in such bad shape that it will need $9.5 million in immediate upgrades, a long-delayed engineering analysis shows.

That development will be a key factor in determining how much the town of Lexington will pay to buy the Carolina Water Service plant that has about 2,000 customers in the Oak Grove part of the county, town officials said Friday.

The analysis by American Engineering Consultants will keep the town from “buying a pig in a poke,” town administrator Britt Poole said. This is the first time the town has been able to determine the fair market value of the private system, he said.

The town has received only one price from Carolina Water and that was $13 million several years ago, Poole said. But that price tag included a second plant that is near Old Chapin Road.

“We knew the plant was in bad shape,” Mayor Steve MacDougall said. “We didn’t know it was that bad. In our estimation, (the repair cost) devalues the plant extremely deep (sic).”

An effort by The State newspaper to reach company executive Tom Oakley Friday was unsuccessful.

The town and the company have been at odds over reaching a deal, even after the state environmental agency directed them last summer to incorporate the private plant into the public sewer system run by the town.

Last week, a federal judge fined the company $1.5 million and ordered it to stop discharging sewage into the scenic Saluda River from the Interstate 20 treatment plant, which has a history of pollution.

U.S. District Judge Margaret Seymour gave Carolina Water until April 1, 2018, to stop releases from the plant.

The company has been cited often by the state Department of Health and Environmental Control for pollution discharges. Last year, people who used portions of the Saluda River were warned not to get into the water until pollutants could be flushed enough to meet safe standards.

Poole said the engineering analyis shows that 45 percent of Carolina’s sewer pipes are leaking or in such bad condition that they must be replaced within five years. In planning terms for sewer systems, five years means “right now,” the administrator said.

The town paid American Engineering $50,000 for the analysis using money from the water and sewer system, Poole said. Carolina Water resisted giving the town access to the plant and system until the state agency ordered the two parties to come up with a plan, he said.

During the four-month study, engineers inserted cameras into lines, inspected pump stations and studied a lagoon that Carolina has for the I-20 plant. They learned that lines are made of concrete, clay and plastic. Concrete pipes break down over time becauses of gases created by sewage. About half of the clay pipes are filled with holes, Poole said.

“There no longer are questions about why they’ve had so many violations,” the town administrator said. “There are holes in the pipes.”

Armed with the cost of taking over the private system, “We’ll start (renewed) negotiations with them,” he said. If the town buys the system, it’s likely the plant, which abuts a neighborhood, will be closed down once the private system is tied into the town’s system.

Poole said he hopes the town can reach agreement on a price tag within six weeks.

This story was originally published April 7, 2017 at 7:21 PM with the headline "Carolina Water's sewer system needs nearly $10 million in repairs.."