Repairs to a portion of Vicksburg’s 109-year-old sewer collection system could run at least $2 million, city officials learned Tuesday.

The estimate was discussed during a budget meeting between the Board of Mayor and Aldermen and city utility department heads. The city by state law must have a fiscal 2017 budget in place by Sept. 15. The new fiscal year begins Oct. 1.

Vicksburg is under a consent decree with the Environmental Protection Agency for allowing raw sewage to be discharged into the Mississippi River and other streams. Under its agreement, the city is required to assess, upgrade and replace deficient sections of the 107-year-old sewer system within 10 years.

“We’ve had the sewer lines assessed, but we don’t know how much the repairs will cost,” Public Works Director Garnet Van Norman said. “We’re basing our costs on what it’s costing Memphis (Tenn.), because their system is similar to ours and they’re going through what we’re starting to go through now. Memphis is spending about $3 million (per year).”

Vicksburg is in the first year of its compliance with EPA. The city in 2015 signed a $700,808.67 contract with Suncoast Infrastructure to assess the first one-tenth of the city’s sewer system.

“We don’t know what it will cost to fix the problems the assessment found,” Van Norman said. “They haven’t been designed.”

He said some work was performed on sewer lines during the first phase of the street paving program done under the city’s $9.2 million capital improvements program.

“We had to do that work then rather than have to tear up the (recently paved) streets to fix lines,” he said. “As it is, we may have to go back and tear up some of those streets later.”

The sewer repair costs were one of several items discussed during the meeting. The board also reviewed the water treatment plant’s $8.86 million budget, $5 million of which is for a new elevated water tank and $175,000 for a new transformer for the water treatment plant.

The city hired Georgia-based ESG Operations in July to manage and operate the water plant for $726,500 a year, or $60,541.66 a month.

Van Norman and Ron North, water plant manager for ESG, said the water tank is a long-range project for the city.

“The water plant provides water for the tanks, and the city lives off the water in the tanks,” Van Norman said, adding another elevated tank means the city would have a continuous water supply for a longer period if the water plant went down, and would provide more water for fire protection.

The $175,000 covers the cost of wiring and changes to replace a transformer, which is supplied by Entergy, at the plant. North said the money would cover wiring and modifications to allow the plant to modernize its electric system.

“What we have is 1960s technology,” Van Norman said. “That was good 50 years ago, but now it’s obsolete. Plants like ours are using a different voltage now.”

Looking long-term, he said, the city will eventually have to replace the plant’s pump motors and electrical system, including moving electrical equipment from the water plant’s basement to a newly constructed building on the property. The cost of making the complete change, he said, is estimated at $5 million.