City of Amarillo responds to infrastructure concerns in North Heights

AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) – Infrastructure concerns in the North Heights community has taken center stage.

“You can smell the sewer. I have to wash my clothes two or three times, that just doesn’t make sense,” said a concerned North Heights resident.

At a recent city council meeting, Interim City Manager Floyd Hartman provided an update on infrastructure plans for the neighborhood.

“What I presented was a history of the infrastructure and how the improvements came about. I think that’s important for what they’re facing today up in the North Heights, but it applies to many communities across the city that were all developed prior to subdivision laws that required those public improvements, and that creates a lot of challenges related to those improvements,” said Hartman.

Some sewer and water lines with two inch pipes in North Heights have been in use since the 1920s and desperately need to be replaced.

A rule by the EPA mandates the City to replace any lead and copper lines over the next ten years.

“You have to physically look at that line at some point unless you can prove it otherwise through a plan review or others, and that’s a costly effort,” said Hartman. “A system that size obviously, with 77,000 plus meters, it’s going to take us a while, a lot of effort to do that. But we’re committed to meeting that requirement, especially in this effort to help the citizens.”

Hartman says this issue isn’t only happening in Amarillo.

“When you are talking about lead and copper, hydrogen sulfide or anything, the community is going to have a lot of concerns. All of those impact all the systems across this country. Every sanitary sewer system and water system has this challenge,” said Hartman.

He says that North Heights is not the only area in Amarillo facing these challenges.

“Areas southeast of intersection I-27 and I-40 have this same challenge, southwest of the North Heights there are areas with that. Any area developed prior to the subdivision requirements that came out in the 1940s and 50s has this challenge related to infrastructure, capacities and size and types of pipe,” said Hartman.

As far as hydrogen sulfide, Hartman says it exists in every sanitary sewer system. However, tests show there is nothing in the air that is a ‘hazard’.

“We have not measured anything outside of manholes that is considered unsafe by any standard that we found. Now, inside the manholes, you would find levels that exceed safe working standards,” said Hartman.

Mayor Cole Stanley says he would like to see $1 million allocated in next year’s budget to replacing pipes in North Heights.

“We’d like to see a plan and we want to know what will that million dollars do in making an impact in that neighborhood? We would hope that it’s the largest impact that they’ve seen,” said Mayor Stanley.

He believes action will be taken on this issue in August before the new budget is voted through in September.

The mayor would also like to see the neighborhood have some revitalization, such as affordable housing or a small business park.

Residents in the North Heights neighborhood believe all these issues have been neglected by prior city leaders.

“I am not pointing my fingers at you guys because you are new, but you guys have a great opportunity to set a new bar and new standard for Amarillo,” said Timothy Gassaway, North Heights resident.

The mayor hopes this council can bring a change.

“I think any movement and budgeting, that and going in at least getting this flow started, literally is probably the biggest thing because there’s just no action that brings that same hopelessness of, ‘We’re never gonna get anything this way.’ And so even if it’s a small amount that we can do in the way of the million dollars, it’s still a step in the right direction and it grows a lot of good faith,” said Mayor Stanley.

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