City council withdraws from land app system in Lamar Co.

HATTIESBURG, Miss. - City council withdrew from Lamar county's waste water plans after spending an hour in executive session with attorneys Thursday.

City Council President Kim Bradley said, "It became pretty obvious two months ago that if we were going to move forward the land application system, it was going to happen in another place other than Lamar county."

Lamar county officials fought the city of Hattiesburg with an ordinance that would limit the acreage of any spray field in May 2016, as well as giving county supervisors a final say.

Bradley told FOX 23 the council simply did not have the time.

"Two years minimum with them over a court case, we have a timeline from Federal court that says we have to be completed by 2018."

Throughout the land application system project, council received backlash from officials and residents about the idea of inserting spray fields into their backyard.

Lamar county Board of Supervisor, Phillip Carlisle said, "When you tell these people that have raised families there and lived there, that this project and magnitude is coming outside their backdoor..."

Carlisle added, "You know these folks deserve answers to their questions. I do not think the people ever felt they were educated to the point they should have been."

Bradley said now the council and attorneys have to come together and think of a new design for the land application system in Forrest county. Officials will now focus its efforts on obtaining land near Camp Shelby or south of Hattiesburg.

"Part of the resolution last night was still some investigative work on some land we are talking about, some testing will be done, that way we know how much water the land will be able to receive" said Bradley.

City council hopes to extend their Federal deadline by possibly 2019.