City OKs plans for sewers
By ROY CHURCH
Wednesday, October 15, 2008 9:22 PM EDT
After years of waiting, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management finally told the City of Wabash what it needed to do with regards to its stormwater and sanitary sewers.
After meeting with IDEM officials and an attorney from the Attorney General's office, Wabash officials Wednesday agreed to accept IDEM's order.
The Wabash Board of Public Works and Safety gave Mayor Bob Vanlandingham the OK to sign the agreed order which gives the city two years to revise its original plan, submitted by the Copeland administration in 2003.
Wabash will then have 20 years to implement it.
The mayor was quick to point out that the work would involve millions of dollars and would almost certainly result in higher sewer bills in the near future to build up funds for the work to be done over the next 20 years.
"It would be irresponsible for us not to be proactive and start putting money aside for these projects," Vanlandingham said at Wednesday's meeting.
However, he also noted that several projects included in the 2003 plan have already been completed or are in the works - Vernon Street, Chestnut Street and the Manchester Avenue/Harrison Avenue project.
The Vernon Street stormwater/sewer separation project was actually started by the McCallen administration, worked on during the Copeland years and completed during Vanlandingham's first term. Chestnut Street was done in conjunction with the Vernon Street.
City officials are now in the preliminary stages of the Manchester-Harrison avenues project, which includes three of the city's eight Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) that need to be corrected.
CSOs are antiquated sewer systems which were built to collect stormwater runoff, domestic sewage and industrial wastewater in the same pipe. Most of the time these combined sewer systems transport all their wastewater to the sewage treatment plant, where it is treated and then discharged to a body of water.
However, in the event of heavy rains or excess snowmelt, the volume in a combined sewer system can exceed the capacity of the sewer system and/or treatment plant. For this reason, combined sewer systems are designed to overflow and discharge excess wastewater directly to nearby streams and rivers.
This is a normal process in most communities; however, the excess can contain untreated human and industrial waste, toxic materials and debris.
Vanlandingham said IDEM officials apologized for taking so long to get back to the city on its Long Range Control Plan, adding that the fact that the city had been proactive and working to correct problems made Wabash a lower priority.
"We have a good record at IDEM," Vanlandingham said.
As a result of the meeting, City Attorney Doug Lehman was able to get IDEM to back off certain requirements, the mayor said, but there were other things they wouldn't budge on.
"I think this is the best we're going to get."
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