'A Perfect Storm': Sewer Owner, Sen. Allen Warn Of Effects From Lake View Sewer Amendment

LAKE VIEW, AL — Residents and public officials in the City of Lake View are celebrating tonight following the passage of a statewide amendment that will bring its controversial private sewer firm's business practices under the regulatory oversight of the Alabama Public Service Commission.

As Patch reported Wednesday morning, voters in Alabama overwhelmingly supported a statewide amendment on Tuesday's ballot regarding the Tannehill Sewer System, which has been the City of Lake View's sole provider of the service since its incorporation in the 1990s.

And as this reporter has written at length over the last year, Tannehill Sewer owner Mike White is the shadowy figure at the heart of the controversy. Indeed, White was recently ordered by a judge to pay $4.7 million in damages to three families who saw their collective sewer bills total more than $500,000. However, the judgement has been stalled by appeals.

There have also been other horror stories from residents unable to afford a septic tank, but whose only alternative is a sewer system that threatens to install shut-off valves on its system ... a tactic residents have told Patch would inevitably lead to sewage backup and the home potentially being condemned by the state health department.

The holding company that owns the Tannehill Sewer System is SERMA Holdings, LLC. — an acronym representing White's children, who are also reportedly central players in the business.

This perceived boogeyman, however, has been more than willing to comment to Patch on the ongoing issues and grassroots opposition as they have developed.

While being unapologetically crass at times over the last year in his communications with Patch, White has also been measured with respect to his criticism of any proposed legislation or oversight relating to his business.

"Tannehill Sewer did not take a political position, pro or against, on Amendment 9," he told me in a text message. "If the amendment has passed and becomes law, our legal and engineering team will review its implications on the rate base and future sewer connections. This amendment only targets our company and affects some of our customers."

White went on to insist that his company's position is — and has been — that if the Alabama Public Service Commission should oversee sewer utilities, then it should oversee all sewer utilities within the state. He then said the "governmental purpose to regulate a subset of customers for one utility" — like the residents Lake View — for a limited amount of time remains to be seen.

Rather, White sees the entire situation involving his business as a continuation of the political fight between the cities of Woodstock and Lake View for control of the first two intersections along I-20/59 in Tuscaloosa County.

"Woodstock has a sewer system that is highly subsidized with taxpayer money and few residential connections; and the sewer system that serves Lake View has no taxpayer subsidy and has overwhelming residential connections," he said. "Woodstock’s goal seems to have always been to hobble Lake View, and this amendment may have done just that."

Lake View Mayor Adrain Dudley saw the issue from a different perspective, arguing that Woodstock had nothing to do with the push for state oversight of the Tannehill Sewer System.

"Every effort that we have done and put toward the sewer has to do with the citizens who live in Lake View and the surrounding communities," he said.

Still, the historical spat between the two rival communities does have its roots in a contentious history, to White's point, going back to when Lake View was incorporated in 1998 — two years after Woodstock incorporated in Bibb County.

It was widely reported that both towns attempted to expand their tax bases through annexations, before Tuscaloosa County Circuit Judge John England's 2007 ruling struck down the 50 or so illegal land grabs and set parameters back to where they had been in 2000.

"One town was doing illegal annexations that got shot down by a judge," argued State Sen. Gerald Allen, a Republican from Tuscaloosa who also has been the target of criticism from Lake View and Woodstock residents alike for his support of the interests of the private sewer owner in his district. "But the judge did not give anything tell the town to come back and see him in a year and see their plan on how they will resolve things."

It's worth noting that a popular member of his own party — State Rep. Rich Wingo, a Republican from Tuscaloosa who sponsored the Lake View private sewer amendment on Tuesday's ballot — has been the most vocal opponent of Allen's efforts over the last decade to stall or kill the amendment that passed Tuesday.

"This was the first time we ever got it to the people to vote because of the opposition from Gerald Allen," Wingo told Patch Wednesday morning. "Allen has been against the people of Lake View for 20 years and the people have suffered in Lake View with the highest sewer rates in the state of Alabama. At the same time, their senator has been in favor of that but I'm so thankful it was approved and glad the people finally got a chance to speak."

But in regards to the longtime disputes between the two cities, Woodstock Mayor Jeff Dodson told Patch that the sewer debate was one of the reasons he initially got involved in politics.

For its origins, he said the Tuscaloosa County Board of Education first approved the installation of a $1 million sewer line to the brand-new Lake View Elementary as it was preparing to open, but SERMA Holdings and ECO-Preservation Services ended up refusing to hook it up after being contracted to do so by the Lake View General Utility Service Corp.

This would set up a court battle involving the county school system and the town of Lake View, which was settled by the Tuscaloosa County Commission, when District 2 Commissioner Jerry Tingle — who lives in and represents the entire area in question — secured $300,000 in discretionary funding to settle a lawsuit that in no way involved the elected body. At the time, the amount represented a little more than a fiscal year's worth of discretionary funding granted to each Commissioner for projects or needs in their districts.

"The town of Woodstock comes in and they pump it, " Dodson said of the interim period before the lawsuit was settled. "We're talking about the town of Woodstock invested almost $700,000 before we ever took over pumping [the sewage] and [the county school board] lawsuit. But the town of Woodstock are the ones who pumped that school so they could open ... The county didn't intervene to do it for the County Board of Education. Woodstock now owns that pump station and we're in the midst right this moment of rebuilding that pump station."

The project, he said, would cost an estimated total of $750,000 at its conclusion, with $550,000 coming directly from town coffers.

"And you know what? That line is still sitting in the ground," Dodson pointed out of the sewer line at Lake View Elementary.

Most recently, though, Dodson expressed frustration that he had to undertake the tall order of seeking support from both sides of the aisle in the legislature — in the form of Democratic Sen. Bobby Singleton and Republican Sen. Greg Reed — to work to stop a bill that would have forced annexation of commercial properties in the Town of Lakeview in competition with adjoining development and investments that had been ongoing in Woodstock.

The proposed measure ultimately failed in committee thanks to bipartisan support.

"As much as I would love to get the citizens [of Lake View] to get some relief, what's it going to cost Woodstock if this is successful?" he said of the failed forced annexation. "I would love to see the day that Senator Allen represented his community rather than the sewer owner. He's strictly self-serving and that's the worst kind of politics there is. In the end, who suffers?"

The mayor of Woodstock, elected officials in Lake View, and members of his own party have been outspoken critics of Sen. Allen in regard to the Lake View sewer debate, each arguing in some form or fashion that the longtime lawmaker intentionally worked alongside White for Tannehill Sewer to profit off of residents of Lake View.

Allen, however, brushed off any criticism and warned of potential consequences of the amendment relating to impacts on the customer and regulations on private businesses.

"Let's say, hypothetically, we have a perfect storm here," he said. "It's a high possibility that the sewer rates are going to go up. And here I was trying to get the mayor and the sewer operator attorneys together to start talking and figure out a way to purchase this system and the mayor veto'd that. When you have a problem, don't you want to sit down with the opposition and figure out a way to solve it?"

Indeed, Lake View Mayor Adrain Dudley and the City Council opposed the measure to buy the private sewer system serving the city that had been proposed by Allen. The mayor previously told Patch the city would gladly buy the sewer, but does not have the capital readily available to undertake such a large infrastructure purchase nor maintain it once it is under public ownership.

Despite the opposition from city officials in Lake View and Woodstock, Allen pointed to his approval in Tuesday's General Election, as he carried Tuscaloosa County with 66% of the vote in a contested race.

"The town of Lake View needs to own the sewer system to bring balance and bring the system under control," he said. "According to the vote count, I had excellent support from the citizens of Lake View, so it's not an indicator to me that this is against Senator Allen, it's just a small group of people that want to destroy Lake View. Period."

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