Decatur's wastewater treatment plant has a problem because the city uses it for a purpose for which it was not designed.

Built to treat residential wastewater, the intake at the plant today is between 60 and 70 percent industrial waste.

Engineers didn't design the plant's ecology system to handle the heavy concentrations of chemicals, thus adding to the persistent smells. That bombardment created an unhealthy system.

Officials now say they will take action to correct the problem through restrictions, better monitoring, new equipment, pretreatment and surcharges.

How did we get to this point?

Joe Downey, president of ADL Inc. Engineering Services, pointed the way. He said Decatur is lenient on industries "which helps to attract them to the area but it hurts the treatment plant."

That's fine if that is local policy but the problem has been going on for years with only intermittent attention to solutions.

Fixing the problem this time comes with an $8 million cost. Besides, the plant is coming up for renewal of its permit to operate in 2009, which could bring new regulations that are stricter.

Decatur can't afford to have its wastewater treatment plant out of compliance. Let us hope for a permanent fix this time.

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