Hinesville City Council members are looking to expand and improve the city’s wastewater system — but they need state help to do it.

Council members approved applying for a loan from the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority that will double the capacity of the water reclamation facility (WRF), in addition to other upgrades.

Plans call for expanding the WRF from a capacity of 2 million gallons per day to 4 million gallons per day. But even with Hinesville’s status as a Water First city, which gives it better rates, and GEFA’s low-interest loans, the price tag is expected to be hefty.

“When I projected this cost, it was about $16 million,” engineer Paul Simonton told council members. “About six months ago they opened bids for a 4 MGD facility in Effingham, and the low bid was $48 million.”

Along with doubling the capacity at the WRF, and taking some of the wastewater load off its Fort Stewart facility, the city also is looking at expanding the Stonehenge wastewater pumping station to accommodate growth in the city’s Airport Road area and to provide capacity for future expansion.

Also on tap is providing a reuse water pressure main to the Oakcrest area and removing a temporary pumping station, and also provide a parallel relief sewer from Norman Street to Sandy Run Drive.

“One of the big things is it will include expansion of Stonehenge pump station,” Simonton said.

The pump station, if the city can procure the funding, will go from 500 gallons per minute to 1,100 gallons per minute.

The Norman Street sewer line collapsed about a year ago, and Simonton said they found were other sewer system components, put in place in the 1940s and 1950s, in bad shape.

Getting the financing also will allow the city to pressurize part of the sewer system.