The Safford City Council heard the straight poop about its wastewater plant at its meeting Monday.

At the request of Mayor Ron Green, Severn Trent Services, the company the city hired to operate its wastewater treatment facility, gave a PowerPoint presentation detailing how it has improved the facility while saving the city money at the same time.

Severn Trent on-site plant Manager Jeremy Samuels went over the major objectives his company accomplished since it began running the facility. According to Severn Trent, the city is saving about $146,452 per year by utilizing its services. That comes out to about $12,200 per month in savings.

He said a number of improvements have been made, including the repair of miscellaneous malfunctioning equipment, the creation of a safer work environment and streamlining the plant to work as efficiently as possible.

In addition to cleaning up the plant and making it compliant with the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, it costs the city less to have Severn Trent run the plant than run it through city employees.

Severn Trent also assumes all liability issues of the plant. That means if something were to happen where the plant is financially responsible, Severn Trent would pay it. This includes fines if the effluent does not meet ADEQ standards or any worker injury.

Samuels also gave an accurate measurement of how much wastewater was running through the plant on a daily basis. He said there are between 850,000 to 950,000 gallons being processed each day. Previously, the council could not get an accurate measurement, according to Councilor Ed Ragland.

Utilities and Public Works Director Jay Howe said the plant was designed to accommodate 2 million gallons per day and was engineered with the ability to double its capacity with minimal additions. He said having Severn Trent run the plant actually increases the number of gallons the plant can handle without any additions.

“With the addition of (Severn Trent’s) operational expertise, we should be able to get another 500,000, 600,000, 700,000 gallons out of that to increase the capacity without any new investment,” he said.

Howe said Severn Trent will save the city even more money because its operational systems will extend the life of the plant as well as making it efficient.

In other council news:

• It approved the rezoning of 5 acres of land south of Hollywood Road and west of the Copper Canyon I subdivision. Langley Properties requested the zoning be changed from AR (Agricultural Residential) to R-2 (Multi Family Residential District) for the purpose of developing an apartment complex.

• It rejected a request from Mayor Green to televise the council meetings. Councilor Ed Zappia said he knew of a nonprofit entity that would be able to not only televise the Safford City Council, but also other meetings such as Planning and Zoning and the Graham County Board of Supervisors.

Councilor Danny Smith asked Zappia the name of the entity, but Zappiacould not recall it.

The council voted 4-2 against, with Zappia and Green voting in the minority.