The Coal Grove Village Council adopted a plan Thursday to meet the Environmental Protection Agency's storm water regulations because it did not appear the village would receive a waiver before Monday's deadline.

Storm water includes runoff from ditches, culverts, and any type of drainage from streets, parking lots, and septic tanks.

Doug Cade, section manager for the engineering/architectural firm CT Consultants' Huntington, W. Va., office, worked with the village on the plan that will meet the minimum requirements of the six areas outlined by the EPA.

The regulations require cities and municipalities to create a plan that develops a public education program, conducts public meetings to seek input, creates construction runoff management, post-construction management, monitors illicit discharges from septic tanks and other areas and keeps records of the street sweeping and cleaning of the catch basins in the storm sewers.

"You could implement this plan fairly quickly, and it would not require any ordinances until 2006," Cade said. "Hopefully, you will get a waiver before then."

A letter seeking a waiver was sent to the EPA in December and another was sent in February, but the village has not received a reply. All villages with less than 1,000 people are receiving waivers, but Coal Grove has 2,027 residents. Municipalities with less than 10,000 people are being looked at on an individual basis, and it is taking longer than expected, he said.

In other business, Coal Grove Fire Chief Gary Sherman asked council to send a letter to the Perry Township Volunteer Fire Department and the Ironton Fire Department for their help with covering the village from Feb. 15 to March 2 while one of the fire trucks was repaired.

Both departments responded to a house fire on Hamilton Street when Coal Grove really needed them because the village's other truck was temporarily out of service.

After finishing up, Sherman said they returned to the Coal Grove station and found that Perry Fire Chief Dewey Derifield had loaned the department a truck because he knew they needed it. Coal Grove returned the truck on March 1.

"They were a big help," he said. "They went above and beyond to help us out, but it really does not surprise me."

Dill's Fire and Rescue Equipment in Ravenswood, W.Va., replaced the 17-year-old fire truck's 750-gallon steel tank that had rusted out with a 1,000-gallon fiberglass tank that will allow the department to have more water on site, Sherman said.

Also, the Council approved a motion to re-advertise for bids to replace a 12-inch water line that runs underneath the railroad tracks from the water plant on Riverside Drive to the water storage tank at the top of Brammer Drive.

According to Ohio Revised Code, Council could not accept any of the bids because they were all 10 percent more than the $20,000 estimate allowed for the construction of the project that is being funded through the Lawrence County CAO. The bids were all around $24,500. The total project cost is $28,000 including permits and engineering cost.

The project has been in the works for three years because a lack of funding and the fact that it runs underneath the Norfolk Southern railroad tracks, McKnight said.

McKnight has predicted the project should be completed one week after work begins. The water line connections will be made in one day to insure that residents are not without water for long.