Kokomo Standard

Public Hearing on Sewer Rate Adjustment to be Held on Oct. 25

A nine-phase Long-Term Control Plan designed to keep untreated wastewater from flowing into area rivers as mandated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) was initially developed in 2003. The final three phases of the plan will be reviewed at a public hearing at 6:45 a.m. Tuesday, October 25. This review includes a proposed rate increase to fund the project.

The public hearing will take place during City Council’s regular meeting. It will be conducted in Council Chambers on the third floor of the Huntington City Building, located at 300 Cherry St.

The rate adjustment under consideration is related to plans to complete Projects 7 through 9 in the city’s Long-Term Control Plan by a 2026 deadline. These projects are required under the EPA’s Clean Water Act, IDEM’s Sewer Overflow Program and an IDEM Agreed Order.

The necessary work will accomplish an important objective: preventing untreated sewage that mixes with stormwater in the city’s combined sewer system from spilling into local waterways during periods of heavy rainfall.

Under federal and state rules, the City’s public utility will use a combination of State Revolving Fund (SRF) grants and low-interest bonds to fund these mandatory projects. These bonds will be paid through local utility rates.

As a result, wastewater rates will increase about 23.4 percent across the board for residential, business, commercial and industrial utilities customers. This translates to roughly $14 more per month for an average Huntington household using 4,000 gallons of water. The change would go into effect after November 30 this year.

“It fundamentally boils down to, ‘Do we want to keep allowing this pollution to occur?’” Mayor Richard Strick said while acknowledging the frustrating yet necessary burden. “It’s a manageable challenge for us as we all pay more to bear the cost of separating our stormwater and sewer lines so we can stop polluting our river with sewage during heavy rain. Ultimately, it’s our responsibility so we don’t pass this along to future generations, because as we all know they will have plenty of problems to face on their own in their own time.”

Combined sewer systems were common when urban sewage systems were first designed more than a century ago. They move stormwater and untreated sewage for treatment at the wastewater plant through the same pipe. Huntington is one of more than 770 U.S. municipalities identified as having a combined sewer system.

For Projects 7 and 8, deep trenches will need to be dug to install sanitary sewer pipes up to 72 inches in diameter at a depth of up to 30 feet along an approximately two-mile route from the Water Pollution Control Facility on Hitzfield Street to the intersection of Division and Canfield streets. The work, including excavation of limestone, will also impact West State, Lafontaine and Tipton streets. Construction is planned to be completed in three phases and in advance of the 2026 deadline.

Complete road reconstruction and sidewalk replacement will be necessary along the route, in addition to water main replacement and upgrades.

Project 9 consists of the installation of a disinfection system, chemical feed building and monitoring equipment for the disinfection of effluent at the Water Pollution Control Facility.

Due to the wide scope of these projects and increased labor and materials costs in today’s market, the lowest bids the City of Huntington received – about $41 million for Projects 7 and 8 and $3.4 million for Project 9 – came in higher than projected. The City has pursued grant opportunities and worked alongside construction and engineering partners to drive these costs down by nearly $5.5 million, or more than 12 percent below the lowest bid.

“We were originally hoping to avoid a rate increase entirely, but that unfortunately has not proven possible,” Mayor Strick said.

Huntington City Council members unanimously approved a plan to fund these projects utilizing 20-year SRF bonds during the October 11 meeting. Separately, Ordinance 29-C-22 authorizing the sewer rate adjustment was introduced during this meeting and will be the subject of the upcoming public hearing. The issuance of SRF bonds is contingent upon final passage and adoption of the proposed sewer rate adjustment.

Original source can be found here.