The Hampton Roads Sanitation District confirmed this week that it is in negotiations to purchase a piece of property on Main Street in Mathews and install a pump station there.

Nancy L. Munnikhuysen, chief of communications for HRSD, said that an existing vacuum sewage pump station is 40 years old and “has reached the end of its useful life.” The existing site, which is 17 feet from Put-In Creek, is too small to meet HRSD’s requirements, she said. In addition, it must continue to be used while the new station is constructed.

The pump station conveys all of the town’s wastewater to the transmission force main, said Munnikhuysen. The force main was constructed several years ago to replace the sewage treatment plant that used to be located on Brickbat Road. It carries wastewater to the massive treatment plant in Yorktown.

If the pump station were to fail, said Munnikhuysen, every vacuum pit and lateral in the system that serves the court house area could experie...