CLINTON —
City officials may forward a long-term combined sewer overflow plan to the state Department of Natural Resources that could total almost $235 million.
The plan will be examined by the DNR and the Environmental Protection Agency. If both agencies agree to the terms of the plan, the city would be cleared of the current mandated CSO work, eliminating fees the city has invested in attorneys during the legal battles regarding CSOs, Public Works Director Gary Schellhorn said during Thursday’s City Services Committee meeting.
If either one of the agencies deny the plan, the proposal may enter more legal battles, lengthening the CSO process.
The plan covers studies, maintenance and reducing sewer overflows, and outlines progress through 2045. Schellhorn said the city must reduce their overflow events to six. Currently, Schellhorn said the city is monitoring how many events happen per year.
The council will discuss forwarding the plan at the next Committee of the Whole session.
One of the bigger portions of the plan involves inspecting a sewer trunk line that has a high percentage of solids filling the inside of the pipe. According to Veenstra and Kimm representative Ted Payseur, who helped develop the plan, the pipe is leaking and provides a major part of flood control from the Mississippi river.
“If we can figure out the condition, then we might need to put in a new trunk sewer,” Payseur said. The trunk has not been cleaned since being built in the mid-1960s.
Payseur said the plan should help give the city more time dealing with the CSO problem, spreading out payments over time. According to the EPA financial indicator of the city of Clinton, the city averages a 2, which equals an average situation.
Because of that ranking, Tim Oswald, of Piper Jaffray in Des Moines, said the city would be on a 10 to 15-year plan to complete all the requirements.
“With the EPA criteria, we’ve found that it’s hard to be weak based on their criteria,” Oswald said.
Payseur said during the city of Des Moines’ battle with CSO regulation, it took nine years for final decisions to be levied.
“We will spend a lot of time to get the best deal,” Payseur said. “You’ve done a nice job with Congress. Hopefully Congress won’t let cities go broke over these things.”
The city started with 14 CSOs in town. Through recent work, the number of CSOs has been cut down to eight.
During dry weather and small wet weather events, CSOs are designed to transport all flows to a treatment plant. During larger wet weather, the volume of storm water may exceed the capacity of the combined sewers or the treatment plant. When this happens, combined sewers are designed to allow a portion of the untreated combined wastewater to overflow into the nearest ditch, stream, river or lake, according to the EPA.
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CSO plan could total $235 million
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