NATCHEZ — City of Natchez officials are hopeful they have found a solution to a yucky $1.3 million sewage problem on Highland Boulevard.

The city is applying for a grant from the Delta Regional Authority’s States’ Economic Development Assistance Program to install a pumping station on Highland Boulevard to alleviate overflowing sewage.

Residents in the area have complained about smelling raw sewage when heavy rains cause pressure on the sewer lines, blowing off a manhole cover approximately a quarter-mile west of U.S. 61 South. When this occurs, sewage sprays onto the Highland Boulevard bridge.

Sewage water and waste also washes into a stream that flows between residences and businesses in the area.

City Engineer David Gardner said the sewage problems on Highland have been an ongoing problem.

“We’ve spent about $1.5 million over the course of the last 10 years or so,” Gardner said. “We’ve made a lot of good headway, but you would have to continue to pour that kind of money into it to fix it.”

The proper solution, Gardner said, is installing the pumping station.

The station will only be operating when excess sewage water exists, Gardner said.

“It won’t always be running, just when we have a backup in the system,” he said. “When you have a dry day, everything works fine. But when you have rain, the pipes get inundated. The pumping station will capture that overflow when it gets to a certain point.”

The pumping station will pump wastewater out of the sewer pipes to a storage lagoon, which will then be drained into the wastewater plant for treatment, Gardner said.

The exact location for the pumping station has not yet been determined, Gardner said, but he said it will likely be near the Highland Boulevard bridge.

By having the pumping station Gardner said, Natchez Water Works can control the flow of the wastewater, and the pipes and wastewater treatment plant would not get overwhelmed.

Part of the problem, Gardner said, is that residents have tied their rain gutters into the sewer lines, so when it rains the sewage lines are overwhelmed.

“That stored flow can be drained into the plant at a controlled rate for treatment,” Gardner said.

The DRA grant requires a 20- or 25-percent match, Gardner said.

Gardner said he is confident the pumping station will alleviate the overflow of sewage on Highland and not overwhelm the sewer system or plant.

“It’s a win-win,” he said.

The grant application is due in early June, and the city should know whether it has received the grant sometime soon after that, Gardner said,