Now entering its seventh year, the process of replacing Waynesville’s outdated wastewater treatment plant has become a frustrating saga that only grows more agonizing — and expensive — the longer it continues.

As crumbling infrastructure in small towns across the country becomes a more urgent issue, Bryson City has been saddled with improving an aging sewer system so old and dysfunctional that North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality has halted any large-scale developments in town that would need new sewer connections.

There’s been no more pressing issue in Waynesville during the past two administrations than the replacement of the town’s aging sewer plant, but after skillfully guiding the project through multiple obstacles over the past five years, aldermen must now find a way to clean up another big mess — project bids almost 50 percent higher than expected.