A consent decree with the city of Meridian will cost residents $126 million over the course of 20 years as the city updates its declining, long-ignored infrastructure.

The City Council agreed to enter into an agreement Tuesday with the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Justice to avoid litigation by updating its sewer system at a cost of $126 million.

“It will be the most important thing in the 150-year history of this city,” Mayor Percy Bland said during the Tuesday City Council meeting, saying it would be the city’s most expensive project to date.

The EPA received a complaint from a Meridian resident sometime before April 2014 and the EPA visited to inspect the city’s sewage system.

In May of 2014, the Environmental Protection Agency cited the city for Sanitary Sewer Overflows, or discharges of untreated storm water inadvertently discharged into Sowashee Creek. The EPA found the city in violation of the Clean Water Act.

Since then, attorneys on both sides have been conducting negotiations for improvements, settling on the consent decree that the council voted upon Tuesday.

“Like most cities, Meridian’s (system) is very old and in need of repair,” said city attorney Ronnie Walton to the council, estimating that much of the system had been built between 1890 and 1950. “Unfortunately, when you’ve got a system as old as Meridian’s… the cost to operate and maintain it is very high.”

Walton has been one of the attorneys spearheading the city’s negotiations with the EPA.

“This will require the city to make significant improvements to our facilities and we’re given 20 years to accomplish that,” Walton told the council.

Walton said that grants could be found to pay for some of the costs, but most of the funding would come from water and sewer rates.

“It’s probably the most valuable asset that the city owns,” Walton said, adding that a 2010 review valued the system at $300 billion.

Hattiesburg, Greenville and Jackson have all faced their own consent decrees from the EPA, ranging from $20.5 million for Greenville to more than $400 million for Jackson.

Hattiesburg temporarily raised its water rates by 55 percent, cutting back 20 percent within six months, according to the Hattiesburg American. The City of Hattiesburg website projects 5 percent annual increases to pay for the associated costs.

Hugh Smith, the Meridian director of public works, said an analysis had estimated that Meridian would need to increase water rates by 4.5-4.6 percent annually to pay for the system updates.

“The consent decree gives up the resources required to make it happen, for it to become a reality,” Smith said. “The neglect has been a hindrance in the past and the consent decree takes us from being reactive to being proactive.”

Smith said new projects would undergo a thorough evaluation to estimate costs using Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) and flow monitoring before systems are designed and eventually are constructed. As part of the decree, which will change how the city maintains its water and sewer system, Smith said the city plans to bid out for a CCTV vehicle and advertise for a CCTV operator.

The city pushed for the agreement to give the city 20 years to reach compliance, as previously reported by The Star, arguing that a shorter term would unduly burden impoverished residents.

“The people with the Environmental Protection Agency really worked with us because they understand our demographics,” Bland said. “There will be incremental increases in water bills for both residential and commercial customers.”

The consent decree must be approved by the DOJ before being published for a public comment period, when residents can submit their thoughts on the document.