Problem

The Mississippi Gulf Coast Regional Wastewater Authority had been created by statute and existed on paper. It had a mandate to stop polluting the Gulf of Mexico with sewage from the three counties on the Mississippi coast. It had some planning funds and an outstanding general manager Jackson Balch, but it had nothing else.The challenge was to create a regional wastewater system, similar to Seattle Metro, from start to finish. This meant building an operating organization, obtaining bond financing, replacing scores of small dysfunctional treatment plants with the new regional system, and spreading the costs fairly.

Solution

Rusty LaFerney was the Engineering Economist on a team of consultants that accomplished these things. He organized and managed the valuation studies and financial analyses for negotiations and purchase of the 15 largest treatment plants owned by cities and the three counties. He developed the first eight-year Financial Plan and worked with the State Bond Advisor in Jackson toward the first revenue bond issue.

Results

The Authority is in full operation today. The work Rusty did resulted specifically in the successful negotiations of the transfer of treatment plants from the Cities and Counties to the Authority and the successful issue of the first bonds to finance capital programs at the Authority.