In an effort to solve the sewage and water treatment problems in Nelsonville and Buchtel, Athens County commissioners have agreed to use the county as a middleman.

By creating a new water district and revising the Athens County sewer district, the county will be able to lower the costs of providing sewage and water treatment to both areas, Commissioner Mark Sullivan said.

The water district agreement will allow the county to purchase the water lines in Buchtel from Nelsonville, he said. The purchase will require the county to maintain the lines for the next 40 years, Sullivan said.

Because the change in ownership will free the city from its responsibility to provide water to the village, the county will buy water directly from Nelsonville and provide it to Buchtel at a lower rate than the village residents are paying now, he said.

Buchtel residents now are required to pay more than double the rate Nelsonville residents pay to receive the city's water services because it is outside the city limits, according to the Nelsonville Water Department. With the agreement, Buchtel residents will have to pay 10 percent more than the city's residents, Sullivan said.

The commissioners hired Albers and Albers, a Columbus-based law firm, to draft the contract for the new water district last week, he said.

Sullivan said the commissioners received a preliminary draft of the contract yesterday.

"We should be signing the papers and finalizing the contract by April," he said. "We should be breaking ground on the sewer (collection system) by April next year."

The sewer system project, paid for by the county, will construct a network of sewer lines connected to the sewage treatment plant in Nelsonville.

Once the Buchtel sewer lines are built, Sullivan said the county will sell the lines to Nelsonville and buy sewage treatment capacity from the city's plant to service Buchtel.

The sewer line project will satisfy the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency's demands for the village to build a public sewage system.

Much like Nelsonville, many village residents use private septic systems because they do not have access to public sewer lines. The EPA has deemed the septic systems unsafe because of ground saturation the systems cause.

The project also will help Nelsonville pay for the city's sewage system corrections, said Nelsonville City Councilman Bill Wend. The county has offered the city $630,000 to buy sewage capacity for Buchtel, he said.

The EPA has ordered Nelsonville to repair the city's inflow and infiltration problem by August 1999. The problem occurs because the city's sewer lines and storm drains are connected, often causing an overflow of capacity at the sewage treatment plant.

Correcting the problem will cost the city between $300,000 and $400,000 and will leave Nelsonville with enough money to expand its treatment plant.

"Nelsonville is benefiting really good and Buchtel, too," Sullivan said. "It's a win-win situation."