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CENTRE — No one likes being asked to clean up someone else's mess. But for the second time since September, Alabama officials have shifted into the lap of the Cherokee County Commission the decades-old problem of stopping the dumping of raw sewage into Weiss Lake.

Two weeks ago, State Health Officer Dr. Donald E. Williamson stood before a packed meeting room in the County Administrative Building and promised that the Alabama Department of Public Health will do its part to stop the flow of sewage into Weiss. But he made it clear the commissioners will have to make some tough decisions in order to ensure the effort is ultimately successful.

“If the County Commission doesn't pass regulations the only thing we can do is begin enforcing the process with the tool we have,” Williamson said. “That is arrest warrants and going to court with individual people on a one-on-one basis. And we think that is not the best way to solve this.”

In September, then-Attorney General Troy King informed the commissioners it was their job to enforce a law written specifically for that purpose which has gone largely ignored since it passed the state Legislature in 2001.

Williamson explained that his office, along with the state Board of Health (BOH), are so concerned about Weiss Lake that they are considering a solution never before contemplated.

“We would propose to do something we have done in no other place in the state,” Williamson said. “That is to issue a variance to allow for holding tanks.”

Under current Alabama law, stand-alone sewage holding tanks are not allowed, Williamson said. But he said the BOH is so concerned about Weiss that he believes its members will agree to the rule change after conducting a firsthand inspection this spring.

County Commissioner Kimball Parker agreed there is no other place in Alabama that is being forced to deal with such a unique set of circumstances.

“No other county has 14,000 RVs sitting in the flood easement,” Parker said.

Williamson said a BOH variance would allow Parker and the other commissioners to work with the county Health Department to establish an annual permitting process and pumping schedule. Frequency would be based on use and serve as a temporary measure for thousands of recreational lot owners around Weiss Lake who do not properly dispose of their sewage.

“What we think this would do is decrease the amount of illegal discharge into the lake and create an incentive to develop decentralized systems,” Williamson said. “It will also be an incentive for individuals to be permitted and have approved holding tanks that are likely to stand the test of time.”

Williamson also hinted at something that the people of Cherokee County have argued for years: Fault for the massive scale of the problem lies largely at the feet of the company that built the reservoir 50 years ago.

“The other people involved here are Alabama Power,” Williamson said. “We've had conversations with them and we'll have some more. Technically the whole issue is, in the flood plain, you can't have a permanent structure.”

Many locals insist that, for several decades, Alabama Power failed to properly enforce its own restrictions against building permanent structures inside the flood easement after the lake opened in June 1961.

In 2006, its 50-year federal license to operate the reservoir coming up for renewal, the energy giant opened a shoreline management office in Centre.

Williamson also seemed to imply that a little common sense along the way could have gone a long way toward preventing the need for his department to intervene.

“We take the position that if you have something that is not mobile, whether it has wheels or not — if you have constructed something permanent around it, then that is a permanent structure,” Williamson said. “That's an issue we will have to talk to Alabama Power about.”

Alabama Power issued a statement in response insisting the company does not own the property that lies in the flood plain and has “very limited rights” when it comes to controlling what happens there.

“For many years we have been providing information regarding potential health violations to the health department, which has enforcement authority along with the Commission,” spokesman Brandon Glover told The Post. “We will continue to work with the Commission and the health department to provide that information.”

Alabama Power seemed to acknowledge there may be structures inside the easement which do not belong there.

“We are ramping up efforts to deal with any permanent structures that have been improperly constructed in the easement,” Glover said.

Parker said the time has come to stop pointing fingers and start working on a solution.

“What has happened in the past is in the past,” Parker said. “We've got to work from today forward and move on and do what we think is right.”

Parker said he expects to see a final version of the ordinance in the next few weeks, and hopes the wording it contains will be fair and effective.

“I don't know if this is the right answer or the wrong answer, but we have got to start somewhere,” Parker said. “Like Dr. Williamson said, this didn't happen overnight and it's not going to get fixed overnight.”

Probate Judge Melvyn Salter said the state and county have a team of attorneys working together to draft an ordinance.

“We hope to have that ready for the Commission within the next two months,” Salter said.