CENTRE — The Cherokee County Commission moved one step closer to passing the county's first-ever sewage ordinance last week when commissioners released a long-in-the-works draft document for 30 days of public comment.

“The public has this time to read over the proposed ordinance and make comments to the Commission,” Probate Judge Melvyn Salter told The Post Friday. “It is my hope that the commissioners will vote to adopt the ordinance at their March 26 meeting.”

The Post first began reporting on the sewage problem in Weiss Lake in August 2006. At that time, an official from the County Health Department attributed most of the trouble to recreation lot owners who “have come in here and set up with no regulations, no restrictions, no notice from us, the county, anybody.”

A home rule amendment passed by the voters of Cherokee County later in 2006 gave the County Commission the power to pass an ordinance to address illegal sewage dumping.

But relief has been slow in coming. Versions of the sewage ordinance released last week date back at least as early as mid-2009. Salter said he hopes the long road to solving the sewage problem in Weiss Lake is finally nearing an end.

“If people want to see Weiss Lake cleaned up they need to write letters to the County Commission in support of the ordinance and encourage the commissioners to approve it,” Salter said. “People need to let the commissioners know they want something done about the sewage problem or it will never go away.”

In May 2010 The Post reported that a law passed by the Alabama Legislature nearly a decade earlier had already given the County Commission the authority to require private property owners to connect to any available public or private sewage systems.

The law, passed by request of the Cherokee County Commission, had been on the books since September 2001 but had never been enforced.

Since taking office in 2007, Salter has led the fight against the sewage problem. He has managed to secure the support of Alabama Power, which built the lake in the 1960s and the Alabama Department of Public Health. Both have vowed to work with the county government to improve water quality in Weiss.

The final piece in the puzzle has been the County Commission, which has been kicking the ordinance back and forth for nearly three years. As recently as four days before last week's vote, one commissioner told The Post he still had problems with the language of the ordinance and did not anticipate it being released to the public.

Despite the threat of another delay, the commissioners' voted unanimously on Feb. 27 to release the ordinance for public comment.

“I hope the public will cover us up with letters in support of this ordinance,” Salter said.

Commissioner Elbert St. Clair told The Post he hopes to see progress on the matter in the months ahead.

"I think they'll be something done but I'm not sure about the time frame," St. Clair said.

Commissioner Kimball Parker encouraged anyone interested in the sewage problem to stop by the Commission office inside the County Administrative Building and pick up a copy of the proposed ordinance.

"Please pick up a copy, read it, and give us your comments," Parker said. "Then hopefully we can move forward."

Carlton Teague told The Post anyone who believes the Commission is dragging its feet on the sewage ordinance doesn't understand how seriously he and the other commissioners are when it comes to sewage in Weiss Lake.

"We're all looking forward to hearing from the people on this, and we know something has to be done," Teague said. "I know it has been a long process, but we have got to do this right. If we get in a hurry about this it may come back to bite us all one day. I think we're close to getting this done and getting it done the right way."