West Tennessee cities highlight cooperation as key to new wastewater agreement

By KATE COIL

TT&C Assistant Editor

A new, historic wastewater agreement between the municipalities of Atoka, Brighton, and Munford is positioning all three cities for growth and showcasing local collaboration. 

The city of Munford built its lagoon wastewater system in the early 1960s. The original agreement began in 1989 when Atoka began receiving service from the system. Brighton joined in 1990 as part of a grant program. 

As the cities have grown over the past 35 years, officials knew things about the agreement needed to change. 

“You can imagine with a 35-year-old agreement there is not much that was set in place 35 years ago that is still relevant,” Atoka Mayor Barry Akin said. “Atoka experienced tremendous growth in the last 15 years, and we are also seeing substantial growth in Munford. For a while, we were under a building moratorium until we could get a handle on the capacity. We reached out to Munford and Brighton, and they agreed this was something we needed to change.” 

Munford Mayor Dwyane Cole said officials also knew that expanding the lagoon’s capacity would not be possible until a new agreement could be reached.  

“We knew we needed to expand the lagoon,” Mayor Cole said. “Atoka’s growth has outpaced Munford, but we are both growing communities. We also knew we needed to reallocate percentages of reserve capacity. We knew Atoka was going to need more and Munford was going to have to take less from the beginning. 

Brighton Mayor Josh Hazlerig came into office in November 2024, and said finalizing the agreement was his top priority. 

“In the past five years, we have seen some historical growth around our region,” he said. “The capacity of Munford’s lagoon was getting pushed to the limits, and some capacities were actually exceeded,” Mayor Hazlerig said. “I knew coming in as mayor that this was going to be one of the largest portions on my plate. Anything that we do, we are so close together we have to work together. That’s the only way we will make it happen. The mayors of Atoka and Munford have been mentors to me both in this and otherwise.” 

REVISING THE AGREEMENT 

Work on revising the agreement began in 2022. One of the biggest obstacles being language claiming it had to be held “in perpetuity.” Mayor Cole said lawyers from the three cities worked together to overcome parts of the agreement that no longer meshed with reality. 

“The original contract stated that if one community exceeded their reserve capacity, it was their responsibility to get back into compliance,” he said. “I don’t believe anyone back then expected as much growth as we have seen. The original contract was also ‘in perpetuity,’ but we had to change it. We had to cancel that agreement or else the percentages would have never changed. The city of Munford knew those percentages were not fair, and we wanted it to be fair. The prior contract put depreciation totally on Munford because we owned the facility. We decided to share responsibility for depreciation, which was a big deal.” 

Building its own sewer facility is cost prohibitive for Brighton, but without increased capacity, Mayor Hazlerig said the town could not attract development or conduct future growth planning. 

“It is getting us out of the red on our capacity and gives us some growth potential,” he said. “It’s giving us options for the future. We were over capacity by a small amount, but at the end of the day, it is going to give us some reserve capacity to be able to look into options for growth. We have a few things in the pipeline, and when you’re a small town like Brighton, it doesn’t take a lot to make a lot. Sewer capacity is something you have to consider whenever a developer is looking at something.” 

Mayor Akin said working together to expand the Munford facility’s capacity was the best option. 

“Financially, this agreement checks a lot of boxes,” he said. “Atoka is in really good shape financially, but taking a hit like trying to build your own wastewater facility would definitely be tough. If you were to start on something like that today, you might be looking at a ten-year time frame getting all the regulatory hurdles cleared, getting agreements in place, and that’s not even considering getting the financials in place.” 

GROWTH POTENTIAL 

Mayor Akin said wastewater capacity is directly related to how much any of the three cities can foster residential, industrial, and commercial growth. 

“Munford has a line to Mississippi River, and for West Tennessee, that is gold,” he said. “We don’t have an issue increasing what we’re sending. A lot of municipalities in West Tennessee may be next to an outflow entity like a river and meet all the challenges of treating and processing the wastewater, but they can’t add a lot of capacity to what they are already handling. One of the major factors up front was can this 15-mile line handle new capacity.” 

Mayor Cole said the new agreement allows the cities to move forward with expanding the wastewater system. ARPA grants have been secured that partner the cities and Tipton County. 

“We also realize, because of several different factors, we are going to meet the capacity of the current treatment specs pretty soon, and we need to fix that,” he said. “Atoka and Brighton have room and acerage to put in a new lagoon that increases our capacity by 1 million gallons a day, bringing us up to 3 million. Since we were primarily funding that, we decided we should get a new agreement. This new agreement is much more comprehensive in what factors trigger a warning or clear a warning, treatment, capacity, and who pays for what. It is just a much better agreement.” 

Even without the opening of Blue Oval City nearby, Atoka Town Administrator Marc Woerner said the project will ensure the future of all three communities.  

“We’ve got wastewater capacity now that can help fuel our economic and community development,” Woerner said. “When we do have businesses and investments coming our way, we have the wastewater. That is not something every municipality in West Tennessee has. It’s about positioning Atoka for the future, making sure we have the tools in place there to seize opportunities when they come their way. We know we are getting looks, and it is just a matter of some things coming full circle” 

WORKING TOGETHER 

Woerner said an additional benefit to this project was strengthening the relationships between both elected officials and employees of all three cities.  

“The relationships between the municipalities helped make the cooperation work,” he said. “Our partners at the city of Munford and town of Brighton have been great partners through this process. We met with TDEC and we had a meeting that was just with our own city engineers. We've had meetings with elected officials." 

Mayor Cole said the agreement is one of the more visible examples of how local municipalities are working together to benefit the whole. 

“I would hope working together cooperatively is always the plan,” he said. “No one has to get the credit; you just have to get it done. We have a terrific relationship between the towns. In fact, the mayors of Atoka, Brighton, Munford, and Covington try to get lunch together once a quarter just to talk. My mantra has always been that we need to do what good neighbors do and help out.” 

Mayor Hazlerig said the collaboration is an example to local residents that their local governments are willing to cooperate.  

“I think people find comfort that their leaders are willing to collaborate with their fellow municipalities,” he said. “It’s good to know we have each other’s backs. Munford and Atoka face the same issues we do, especially when dealing with the state or federal government.”