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because it is still aspirational at this stage to see the Federal Government want to start looking at <br />other criteria. <br />Committeemember Davis stated he is asking because if there is a process for public participation <br />with our congresswoman and senators there could be a particular variable for the City of South <br />Bend to advocate for which we know would help us. <br />Mr. Fahey responded there would be some that would certainly give us a better outlook. <br />Committeemember Davis stated it would be nice for the City to be proactive because we have <br />mostly been reactive in this process over the years. He asked if the argument four (4) years from <br />now will be that this project will cost even more than Phase Two (2) currently because we are <br />now using 2016 dollars. Inflation should already be taken into account because it is frightening <br />how much they have increased. <br />Mr. Fahey stated once we come up with the final alternative that will all be considered including <br />inflation. The issue was the figures we are now working with are almost a decade old. <br />Committeemember Davis stated he is still concerned that our Administration signed off on a plan <br />that did not have inflation factored in. <br />Committeemember Randy Kelly thanked Mr. Fahey for his presentation and breaking down this <br />involved project in a digestible manner. He asked what has been the success rate for other <br />communities in renegotiating their agreements and how he saw South Bend faring in trying to <br />renegotiate ours. <br />Mr. Fahey responded if we come back with an adaptive plan which is the idea that we will do <br />something for around five (5) to six (6) years and then reassess. If we also show we are heavily <br />doing green infrastructure that will be more difficult than saying we are going to build three (3) <br />miles of a deep tunnel. It seems the experience of other communities is that the EPA likes the <br />concepts it is much easier to quantify to what the details of a tunnel will be because the specifics <br />are much easier to quantify. Green infrastructure involves hundreds of pieces of small <br />infrastructure across the City. It is very hard to quantify that. We are weighing all of this when <br />looking at the three (3) alternatives. We are working with attorneys who have fought this in other <br />communities as well. <br />Eric Horvath, Public Works Director with offices on the 13th Floor of the County -City Building, <br />stated what we are trying to do is create a compelling argument on the financial matters and <br />trying to take it far enough that we can argue a level of control. What we have seen is that the <br />communities that have gone and renegotiated to date have all kept that same level of control and <br />worked hard to do either better in terms of the environment or quicker. We may get to the point <br />when we start looking at this that financially we are not able to afford the level of control in our <br />current consent decree. If we get there we are going to have a really compelling argument. That <br />will take the Council being onboard with the Administration and the community all speaking as <br />one (1) saying this is too big of a burden for us and we need the EPA to help us and consider <br />alternate levels of control. There is only so much we can do if we stay at that four (4) overflows <br />