HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) - It will be 2017 before the city of Hattiesburg must start up its wastewater treatment system to meet new federal guidelines regarding ammonia nitrate removal.

But, as Hattiesburg Resource Group engineer Shea McNease explained Tuesday to the Hattiesburg City Council, now is a good time to start making some headway in the direction the council wants to go.

The Hattiesburg American reports (http://hatne.ws/REDZnk ) HRG is a conglomerate of local engineers that Hattiesburg is contracting with in this project.

Through the course of the summer, the group came up with two options.

The first is land application and the second is a mechanical treatment plant, which would scrap the lagoon system but still have discharge into the Leaf River.

The timeline for initial designs of a new system is summer 2013.

Information from: The Hattiesburg American, http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com

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