Baldwin County Sewer Service will have to remove a sludge pond at their Fort Morgan treatment facility, if the Gulf Shores City Council follows the recommendation of the city’s planning commission.

The sewer utility had applied for a conditional use permit to increase capacity at its facility in Fort Morgan and officially sanction the sludge pond, which had been built without a permit. Gulf Shores planning and zoning staff had recommended denying the permit or approving with conditions.

In the staff report on the application, planning and zoning staff list a variety of reasons for denying the permit, including that BCSS had not yet obtained a permit from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) for increasing the capacity of the plant and continued violations of ADEM regulations at the plant.

But the planning commission took it a step further, not only recommending denial of the permit but also recommending that the city council order BCSS to remove the sludge pond at the facility and remediate the trees and plants that were lost when the sludge pond was constructed in late 2021.

“This whole project has been mishandled and mismanaged from the start, with inconsistencies, building without permits,” Pete Vakakes, chairman of the planning commission, said during the meeting. “Nobody seems to be in charge out there. What’s going on?”