By CHARLES L. WARNER

and GRAHAM WILLIAMS

With help from the federal government, Jonesville and Union may finally link their sewer systems.

Jonesville’s town council agreed Monday to join forces with Union and expand sewer service along the northern U.S. 176 corridor, including the ability to accept and treat industrial wastewater from future industries.

Funding for the $3.7 million project would come from President Barack Obama’s proposed $835 economic stimulus package.

“We want a piece of that pie,” said Joe Nichols, Union’s utility director.

Linking the two systems has been under consideration since March 2008 when Union City Council and Jonesville Town Council first met to discuss the idea. The link is seen as the key to opening the northern end of the U.S. 176 Corridor to industrial development.

Jonesville provides sewer service for its residents and the upper part of the corridor, treating the sewage in a lagoon. While it can handle municipal waste, the lagoon can’t treat industrial sewage, which has limited the county’s ability to attract industry to the area.

“We have some deficiencies when it comes to recruiting industry to the northern end of the county,” Stanley Vanderford, director of the county’s development board, said. “If they have a lot of sewage, they can’t put it up there. Other than Commerce Park on Highway 176, this is the only land we can market.”

Union, which has the capacity and the ability to treat industrial waste, provides sewage treatment service for the southern end of the corridor. It recently extended that service to the new Jonesville Elementary/Middle K-6 School under construction at the intersection of U.S. 176 and New Hope Church Road.

Included in the project is:

• $2,050,000 for the construction of a pump station and force main in the Rocky Creek area.

• $1,300,000 for a new pump station south of Forest Street on U.S. 176

• $350,000 to extend water and sewer services to the Trakas Site where the county plans to build a new industrial park.

Union would own, operate and maintain the existing and proposed sewer facilities along the U.S. 176 corridor. Jonesville would own, operate and maintain the pumping facility at its existing wastewater treatment plant, which would transfer the wastewater flow to the new facilities.

Jonesville councilman Steve Thompson expresssed concern about potential lost revenue for the town.

“We don’t gain anything but we lose three pump stations,” he said. “If we get rid of assets, how can we go back to the citizens of Jonesville and ask them to pay taxes?”

If Jonesville gives up the pump stations, it will lose the revenue it receives from treating wastewater from the Disney Distribution Center and the Dollar General Corp. Distribution Center, Thompson said.

Vanderford pointed out that it costs the town more to operate the pump stations than it receives from those two facilities.

“You’re giving up a great liability for that 1,000-1,500 gallons of wastewater (pumped each day),” he said.

Jonesville Mayor Ernest Moore gave his support to the proposal.

“I’m all for getting this in place,” he said. “We want to get the money while we can, if we can.”

Thompson agreed.

“Now’s the time — let’s strike while the iron is hot,” he said.

Most of the funds included in the federal stimulus proposals will be used for infrastructure projects, Thompson said. To obtain stimulus funding, a community must have projects that are ready to go and the sewer link meets that criteria.

“We were asked to put together a project that could get going pretty quick and this is what we came up with,” he said. “We’ve also got some economic development grants set aside which can be used to help cover the cost,” he said. “So we’re hoping that this will cost the city, Jonesville and the county nothing.”

Nichols is going to Washington, D.C., on Feb. 22 to make a proposal to members of South Carolina’s congressional delegation. The trip will be paid for by the Piedmont Municipal Power Agency.

“”When I go to (4th District Rep. Bob) Inglis’ office and (Sen.) Lindsey Graham I want to be able to roll something out,” he said.