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HomeMy WebLinkAbout02-04-19 Utilities „-i, 4 ,0 JTH 8�x d Ls7� r PEACE A T x�x .1865 OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK KAREEMAH FOWLER, CITY CLERK UTILITIES FEBRUARY 4, 2019 5:05 P.M. Committee Members Present: Jake Teshka, Sharon L. McBride Committee Members Absent: Oliver Davis, Regina Williams-Preston Other Council Present: Karen White, Tim Scott (late) Other Council Absent: Gavin Ferlic, Jo M. Broden(late) Others Present: Bianca Tirado, Graham Sparks, Bob Palmer Presenters: Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Eric Horvath, Kieran Fahey Agenda: CSO Update Committee Chair Jake Teshka called to order the Utilities Committee meeting at 5:05 p.m. He introduced members of the Committee and stated, We do not have a quorum, but since there will be no official action taken, we don't necessarily need one(1). He continued, It has been a little while since we've had our last CSO discussion, and there has been some interest from various Council Members as well as the public to find out where we are at in this process. Previously, we were working on getting the plan approved by the EPA, so we wanted to have this meeting to get an update. Mayor Pete Buttigieg, offices on the 14th floor of the County-City Building, stated, We appreciate the sustained interest in this issue. I think what most of the City probably doesn't realize is that we are talking about the largest environmental Public Works project in the history of the City. The bad news is we've discovered over time that it is even larger than we thought, and we learned that the plan we've been locked into is less effective than we thought. I think this is also a chance for us to showcase what South Bend does best. Everyone kind of rolls their eyes when I go around the country and boast about South Bend having the smartest waste water system in the world, it's true, and the usefulness of it is that we can pioneer a way out of this. I wanted to make sure the Council is aware of the level of activity that is happening. Not just on the technical side, in terms of using that technology to craft a better, greener and more cost-effective approach,but also in terms of the negotiation process. A lot of this is really a function of whether the federal government, and in particular, the EPA, is prepared to allow us to do what we now know is a better way. So there are political layers with that especially with a different administration in charge and a different appointee in Chicago than we had two (2) years ago. But a lot of it is also procedural. INTEGRITY' SERVICE'ACCESSIBILITY JENNIFER M.COFFMAN BIANCA L.Timm) JOSEPH R MOLNAR CHIEF DEPUTY/DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS DEPUTY/DIRECTOR OF POLICY ORDINANCE VIOLATION CLERK EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 1227 W.Jefferson Blvd.I South Bend,Indiana 46601 I p 574.235.9221 I f 574.235.9173 I www.southbendin.gov 0 CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK He went on, The team has done a fantastic job of taking us to the next level, not just technically, but in terms of having the right legal formation and the right support professionally so that we're able to get an advantage. Councilmember Tim Scott arrived at the meeting at 5:08 p.m. Mayor Buttigieg continued, Reading between the lines with the EPA, we found that they also like the idea of using this as a case to showcase the problem solving of how to get to a better way. They don't want to be perceived as the kind of inflexible bureaucracy, but they also have their own mandate that they have to follow. For the City, this really is a policy question. It is important for the public to understand how this gets negotiated. We have a balance between compliance and affordability. There is some sum of money, where we can make sure that not one (1) drop ever goes into the river, and the cost of that would make it impossible for South Bend.We are still tilted too far away from affordability in order to get compliance in terms of the percentage that households would be paying a major chunk of their income in their sewer bills under the plan that was locked in before. It's way too high. The great news is that we have had a third (3rd) way out where we can get improvements in compliance and improvements in affordability. The Council can play a really important role in helping the public understand that this is not about going back and having a more polluted river in order to save money, but we went back and found a plan that would get the kind of compliance we want and save money, but they have to let us do it. I wanted to be here to let you know there may be moments when we need to enlist the Council Members as advocates of the residents to help add your voice that the sense of the Council is that the City really would be better off if and when the EPA allows us to do what we know is a better answer to this problem. Committee Chair Teshka thanked the Mayor for his comments and opened the floor to Committee and Council Members for questions. Councilmember Karen White stated, You made mention of the plan and the level of negotiations that we have to have with the EPA. At what point will we have the sense of where the negotiations will have to take place, and what we need to do? Have we or will we be submitting a new plan and what is that timeframe? You may have that in your presentation, and I don't think that you will have any difficulties with the Council Members being advocates. We know at this point, we want to be in compliance, but it has to be affordable and we have to be concerned for our citizens too. Eric Horvath, Director of Public Works with offices on the 13th floor of the County-City Building stated, Kieran will answer some of those, but I'll add to the Mayor's comments. We have given them a stage plan, which we are going to talk about again today. We've gotten really good reception from some of the folks, in particular, from the Regional Administrator and staff. Some of the folks who were part of the original plan are pushing back a bit,so we don't know fully where we're going to be yet.We're going to push hard so we can get something done this year. Sometimes these things take five (5) years, and it may go into litigation if it has to. We don't anticipate that and we don't hope for that, but we are hopeful that because we do have a plan that provides environmental benefit but also for lesser dollars, it seems to us on its face to be a win win for everybody. Hopefully it is something they can ultimately embrace and get excited about,but we'll have to get them there. We'll be meeting with them in about three (3) weeks, and then we'll just continue to meet on a regular basis until we get the solution ironed out. EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f574.235.9173 TTD574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 2 CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK Councilmember White asked, Is the City of Indianapolis the only City that was able to renegotiate their consent decree? Mr. Horvath answered, No, there has actually been a number of them. Councilmember White asked, Do you know how many in the State of Indiana? Mr. Horvath replied, I don't, but I know Mishawaka is trying to right now. Indianapolis did, Fort Wayne did some, and Evansville is, so a number of them are, and the new attorney that we have working on this has done a number of renegotiations with the EPA, but also with Region Five(5) specifically. Committee Chair Teshka asked, At what level are we engaging our Congressional delegation? Congresswoman Walorski, Senator Young, Senator Braun? How were we engaging Senator Donnelly? How can we, as a Council, help move this along with those folks as well? Is there any pressure they can put on the EPA to help us out? Mayor Buttigieg replied,As I recall, I think the attorney who has been working on this thinks there might be a real opportunity with Senator Braun. I know the Administration was really excited about that election. Representative Walorski's office is aware and has been tracking it, and we engaged Senator Donnelly's office a lot. I haven't had an opportunity to engage Senator Braun or educate him on this issue. I think if and when we do,that might be a moment when either informal or formal expression of support from the Council will help. I would think that they would be pretty responsive if an Indiana Senator sent a letter to the EPA saying that they heard there was a negotiation and asking what is going on. It just elevates the awareness of it. I would defer to the attorney on the political tactics because sometimes we have been counseled against pushing the wrong button or embarrassing the wrong person at the wrong time, but it is a great point and we could use the Council's help, too. Mr. Horvath stated, We've been very cautious with that, because we don't want to go in and tick anyone off. The DOJ has also had a large say in this, and we don't want to apply political pressure until we need to, but they'll have to come all guns bearing from Council, local advocacy groups, but also from Senators and Congresspeople. It may not get there,but our hope is that they will see the value of this program. If we were going in with the program that the only way we could get the costs down to some affordable rate was through lowering the environmental benefit, then we would probably need to start with that right up front. But because we're not, and we have a good program, we're going to see what kind of reception we get first (1St), then bring that in when we have to. There very well may be that time, and it may be sooner rather than later. Committee Chair Teshka stated, Please keep us in the loop and let us know if there is anything we can do to leverage any existing relationships that any of us have. Certainly if you want assistance if you hit a brick wall in negotiations, we want to be able to help in that way. Councilmember Tim Scott asked, How many Cities in the nation are going through exactly this? Because so many times, it has felt like it is just South Bend, and over Christmas I was reading about St. Louis going through theirs,being a river town that they are. EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f574.235.9173 TTD574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 3 CITY OFSOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK Mr. Horvath replied, It is somewhat localized to certain areas, and the Midwest is the largest area. We have one-hundred five (105) communities in Indiana alone, but nationwide there are over seven-hundred(700) communities with Long Term Control Plans, so there are quite a few people going through it, but they are mostly in the Midwest, with a couple on the east coast. There are a lot of places in the country that don't have this issue at all because they don't have combined sewers, so their Senators or Congress people don't care about it so much. Mayor Buttigieg stated,This is a hot topic in the U.S. Mayor's Water Council,too. I've found that there are three(3)kinds of mayors. There are California mayors that don't have any water,Florida mayors that are dealing with sea level rise, and Midwest mayors who have CSO problems. They can be a great resource, too,regarding gathering data and engaging Congress. Kieran Fahey,Director of the Long-Term Control Plan with offices on the 13th floor of the County- City Building, stated, The objective of the Long-Term Control Plan, specifically, is to reduce the frequency and impact of combined sewage into the river. (Referring to his presentation available in the City Clerk's Office), he outlined the scenario where the pipes would potentially overflow into the river. He stated, It is a combination of storm water and sewage, and it would flow directly into the river. When the treatment plant was built, we intercepted the sewer line and brought that material to the treatment plant for treatment. Since then, there have been massive improvements in water across the country, but the CSO problem really came to the front in the 1990's with the CSO Policy. The CSO Policy was technically read into the Clean Water Act, so it is technically law. We are trying to come into compliance with the CSO Policy, and in order to do that we have a consent decree(an agreement/court order)and within that there is a Long-Term Control Plan and that is a set of prescribed projects that says we shall do these projects to come into compliance and that's where we're at. He then referred to a graphic of the Long-Term Control Plan on the presentation. He continued, Phase One (I) represents about twenty percent (20%) of the work, Phase Two (II) represents about eighty percent(80%) of the work and the budget. Phase I included improvements at the treatment plant and then some small sewer separation projects. Phase Two (II) is more impactful in a positive and a negative way. You'll notice a lot of names of the parks: Leeper Park and Howard Park, so it is impactful in that we'll be catching that CSO before it goes to the river, but also the impact on the parks especially in relation to the destruction of the infrastructure and temporarily we would have to build facilities on these parks. He went on, Also, there are seven (7) storage tanks, and two (2) tunnels. One (1) is more or less a tunnel and the other is a parallel interceptor which runs parallel to the existing interceptor. The work that has been completed so far, almost$150 million has been spent so far on this work, $114 million on major projects in the fields and the collection system, and then $34 million at the treatment plant as well. This does not include the Smart Streets work that was completed recently. Part of that was doing things that were beneficial like the porous pavers and the sewer upgrades. Referring to the presentation, Mr. Fahey stated, Essentially, the colors are coded so the numbers are actually outfalls, and they would all go into a tank that is the same color as the name, for example you see Randolph and Sampson, everything that is that luminous green belongs together. Leeper Park is the brown one (1), and the storage conduit is the pink line and the parallel interceptor is the line that runs from Brownfield Park up to the treatment plant. We have a lot of infrastructure throughout the City. It is expensive and quite disruptive. The problem with that is EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION INCLUSION ' EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f 574.235.9173 TTD 574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 4 CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK twofold. One (1) is that it won't work how we expect it to work, and two (2) is that it is too expensive. For example, the cost is $713 million on top of what we've previously spent. That is $713 million cash that it would cost,but when you have to go out and raise that money, you have to pay for that money as well. That is one (1) thing if you are New York City and you had that kind of scale you could draw from, but if you look at numbers from South Bend, the household income, per capita income, and the number of households with an income of less than $20,000, that just emphasizes the sheer affordability concern here. That was our motivation when we completed Phase One(I),to say well,rather than just going straight into Phase Two (II), let's look at an alternative way we can do Phase Two (II). It's not all bad news, we've had some success in the reimagining of this plan over the last while, and the negotiations are going well. Mr. Fahey presented a graphic of a few of the issues with the system now. He stated, We realized afterwards that some of the tanks were too big or too small. Most were too big with the wrong locations, challenges in relation to doing some of the projects where we were told we were going to do those projects. All compounding on top of the fact that we had an unaffordable plan. Even if we were given a federal grant for a billion dollars to do this plan, this would not be the right plan to do. He continued, It is not all bad news. Before our time, the City had the foresight to do work in relation to the CSO system. One (1) success in that is that they gathered a lot of data, starting in the late 2000's. It didn't seem like it was going to be the most significant impact of the plan. It seems like the real time control, which was the next phase that happened in 2010 was going to be more impactful. In hindsight, having ten (10) years of data was the real cornerstone that we were able to base the new plan on. So far, Phase One (I) has been fairly minimal, so there is success here, and the success has been a reduction of CSO volume of 2 billion gallons per year down to about a quarter of that. We're sustaining that each year. The variability in rainfall, and the consistent trends in the lower numbers, if you look at 2008, there were over 2 billion gallons and forty-eight(48) inches, whereas in 2016 you had almost ten(10) inches more but we had so much less CSO volume. That is what is unique about South Bend. Other communities don't have this data. As we're negotiating this plan, we are able to say to the regulators that you can also bring what we've done to other communities and it can be beneficial to the other communities and it would make you look good as well. Referring to the presentation, he stated, Real Time Control, between 2011 and 2012 is where we were able to get more specific, not just collecting data but controlling what was happening. I know some of you have heard some of these points before, but with the Long-Term Control Plan, these plans are sustained issues, they're at least twenty (20) years long, and they have to be planned out in a way that we use models to work on the best plan, and how the best plan should be formed. Basically, you're making assumptions as to how much rainfall you're going to have, how much of it is going to go into the ground, and how much is going into the sewer system.The population of your City will affect what future developments you might have. How much inflow you might have from your ground water to your sewer system or the other way, so trying to work out how much of it will make its way into the river and how much will make its way to the treatment plant, and then there are variabilities there as well. The height, so you know exactly how much will overflow and the circumference of your line, the line that connects different parts of the sewer system. So with a design like that, it becomes normal that when there is uncertainty, people add a bit of contingency to their plans. That compounds safety concerns. We only knew what we knew because we had ten(10)years' worth of data to say what's really happening out there, rather than just making assumptions. EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f574.235.9173 TLD 574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 5 CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK Referring to the presentation, Mr. Fahey stated, The black line represents what a model predicted would happen for a particular rain event, and the blue line is what actually happened. At the first (1St) peak of this storm, which would be around 4:10 a.m. or 4:15 a.m., you'll see that the black line predicted a certain amount of CSO, but the actual volume was a little bit less. Whereas,just past 6:00 p.m., what was actually predicted was less than what it actually was. You're designing and if you are consistently over or consistently under,you can account for that,and sometimes you have too much or too little capacity. There was confusion and there were inaccuracies in the model which meant that we shouldn't be investing $713 million based on a model that had inaccuracies in it. Another example, if you look at the red, those are the actual measurements. Very few cities actually have these, versus the model in the green. The green is higher, so the model is mostly more conservative. That gap between the green and the red is extra capacity we would have built, and dollars spent that we wouldn't have needed to spend. He continued, When you have something that you expect versus what you actually monitor, the relationship,if it is exactly the same it will be one(1)to one(1).The higher that number,the better. Two point two nine (2.29) is actually not that bad, which is maddening to have to say. It is considered acceptable in most communities.Now we're at point nine three(.93),which means that the relationship between what we know might happen versus what does happen is much more accurate. So, therefore, we design a more accurate model and have a Long-Term Control Plan based on that. The blue and dotted red lines pretty much mirror each other. The point here is that the hydraulic response system,which is an aspect of the combined sewer,allowed us to learn based on previous data what to expect in future events.We eliminated all of the assumptions and modeled it with greater accuracy. We could say this is how this pipe will react, or this is how much capacity it will or won't have so we know how much overflow to expect. It allowed us to design and build a better plan than we would have. He went on, In summary, on these smart sensors, time gave us knowledge. That knowledge allowed us to do the modeling using real data as opposed to the assumed data that we had. That real data was then used in a way that, you can imagine previously people would make all of those assumptions, then come up with a plan saying, what if we build a tank here and a tank there, how would it work? Someone would go and put it into a computer and look it up and say it was either good or not good. It was random, dependent on a human's idea of what might happen. What we were able to do, was gather all of the real data and have it sort itself out to show us what the best selection of the infrastructure would be. This way we can say if a square foot of tank costs this much, a square foot of green infrastructure costs this much, and these are the locations I want you to focus on, based on the data we've gathered. We know what capacity we need and based on the cost, we knew that we didn't need what we previously had thought. He continued, We were able to do that modeling, or optimization, and on top of that, for a number of reasons we had a green infrastructure. Green infrastructure benefits the community not just for the purpose of the water quality but socially as well. It is something people will see on the ground that will clean up and brighten up neighborhoods rather than a tank that isn't seen. It is a rain garden or a new footpath or a new roadway that is socially, economically, and environmentally beneficial. One(1) of our reasons for adding that is because we're dealing with the environmental regulators and we want to accurately be able to say that this plan is not only better in terms of water quality,but overall it is a greener plan. Our old Long-Term Control Plan does not have green infrastructure. We didn't add it just because it is nice, we wanted to make sure that everywhere it would be would be beneficial. EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 1227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f574.235.9173 TTD 574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 6 CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK He went on,We were able to model accurately which areas of the City we could actually eliminate the CSO volume. You could build green infrastructure all around the City and it might not have a large impact, but there are certain areas where you could put green infrastructure where it would make a large impact. You would be able to bridge that gap from the capacity that you have versus the quantity that you have. We know that we have thirty-five(35) CSO basins in South Bend, and there are nine (9) of these where we are specifically able to build green infrastructure that it will work and we know that it will be able to meet its objective. The green infrastructure eliminated a number of the small tanks, specifically, the tank at Leeper Park and the tank at Brownfield Park. They were quite small realistically, and we were able to eliminate them entirely from the plan with green infrastructure. When you reduce the size of the tank from 2 million gallons to 1.5 million gallons, you have a small savings. The real savings comes from eliminating a tank entirely. The new plan is called a smarter alternative for a greener environment. It is smarter because it relies on smart infrastructure, its an alternative because it's an alternative to the bad plan that we had, and its greener because its better for the water quality and it is better for the community structure. He continued, Also, it has gone through a renegotiation. We have to be very careful about how everything is planted and portrayed, and this plan is definitely the right plan for South Bend. We didn't want to just call this some series of numbers and digits, we wanted to emphasize that this is the appropriate smarter and greener plan for South Bend. Another example is the portrayal of the differences. We are continuing to make the green plan better the whole time. The green(referring to the presentation) is a comparison to the yellow, which is where we are at the moment. The currently mandated LTCP that is in our consent decree at the moment, versus the SAGE Plan. Some of the things to emphasize are the residential indicator and the calculation that the EPA created, whereby you are expected to have a ratio that shows the relationship between a sewer bill and a medium household income in a community. If you're above two percent(2%)it is considered high,if you are less than two percent(2%),two percent(2%)to one(1%)percent it is medium and less than one percent (1%) is low. We were at three point six nine percent (3.69%), which is exceptionally high, and we managed to get it down to the right amount, close to two percent(2%). Committee Chair Teshka asked, To be clear, the three point six nine percent(3.69%) is where we would be if we went through with the current TCP? SAGE would be two point one two percent (2.12%). Can you explain the current conditions, where we're at? Mr. Fahey explained, That's if we stop spending, if we just said we're done. Committee Chair Teshka asked, Do you know where we're at on that residential indicator? Mr. Fahey stated, These are designed for future planning for future projects. We don't have any projects right now that we are building on, so it wouldn't really be possible to come up with one (1)because you would just be talking about a sewer bill. Mr. Horvath stated,We could calculate it and it would probably be around one point seven percent (1.7%). Committee Chair Teshka asked, So,what is the current sewer bill in relation to household income, if it is calculable? EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f574.235.9173 TTD 574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 7 CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK Mr. Horvath stated, They aren't going to give us a break from the Clean Water Act because we're a high burden, you don't have to do all of this,but what they do is say since you're a high burden, you still have to do all of this but we're going to give you a little longer to do it. That's really the only benefit that it provided, which is great because it gives us a little longer to figure out how to finance the program, but it also becomes more expensive long-term because you're financing it for a longer period of time. Mr. Fahey stated, And also if we devised a plan that came up with a residential indicator of point five percent(.5%), they wouldn't let us get there, there isn't a plan out there that would be able to get that residential indicator down. We've already dropped a half a billion dollars here. The figures here look really good to us in terms of the negotiation. Mr. Fahey stated, We are in renegotiation. Our plan is a firm offer on our side, it's what we want to have approved.As we go through negotiations,we'll depend on our whole team and the Council. There might be reasons to adapt as we go through. Our hope is that we have a solid plan here and we should get approved. We had a process whereby we started off gathering State support. We visited IDEM, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. We started out as a small team, including myself, by giving them some of the basics of where we were going with this and peaking their interest in the work we were doing. Then Eric and the Mayor came down and we had the IDEM Commissioner there as well. They were very favorable and interested in what we were doing here as well, and offered their support to us as partners. That meant we were able to go to the next stage to meet with the EPA. He continued, We've had three (3) meetings with the EPA so far. District Five (5) is based in Chicago, so we went to their offices and gave them a review of everything we had done so far. We highlighted the problems we were facing, both environmentally and economically. We came to them not just with a problem,but with solutions.We asked for further information,and then invited their Regional Administrator out to South Bend. We talk about smart sewers, but its hard for someone to see, because a lot of it is either in a computer somewhere or its underground. The Regional Administrator and her Chief of Staff came out here last summer and we gave her a tour of our offices and facilities. Eric, the Mayor, and I started the foundation for a good and positive relationship with her. She was very favorable toward the work we were doing. She's a nice lady, a pragmatic problem solver. We met with some of her staff along with IDEM personnel in the fall of last year and gave them more information. I would like to say that in the big picture we've won them over and they like what they're seeing and hearing, and they've got to make sure they have very specific answers to specific concerns and queries they have, so that's where we are. We're compiling a very large technical submission, a twenty (20) page letter describing all of the work that we've done so far with a lot of technical data which is something they have specifically requested. Eric and I had a meeting today with the attorney for the project. The lawyer has been involved successfully with these types of negotiations around the country and has a proven track record in relation to this. Councilmember Jo M. Broden arrived at the meeting at 5:43 p.m. Mr. Fahey continued, We're hopeful that this is the big year for this, that the stars are going to align and everything is going to be right. We have all of the hard work done,the data gathered,we have the right relationships with the right people. Also, our marketing, we're representing this unified community we have behind us.We have a citizens advisory committee that has been behind EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227W Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574 235 9221 f574.235.9173 TTD574.235.5567 vsww.southbendin.gov 8 ®CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK us as well. Also, we have a number of interested parties in the community involved in the environmental area and water quality in particular. For example, the St. Joseph River Basin Commission, the Friends of St. Joseph River, Shirley Heinze Land Trust and the Bowman Creek Educational System, Notre Dame, IUSB, IVY Tech, have all written letters of support, and we're continuing to build that support. We are continuing to gather that support so that when we go to the EPA the next time in the coming weeks, we'll be able to say it's not just us, it's our Council, our Mayor, and our interested parties as well. Those organizations are the people in the other communities who are saying they don't like their communities' plans when they go to the EPA. We've been an open book,and we've built good faith relationships with the community and they're aware that we have their best interests at heart when it comes to affordability and the environment as well. It's been easy because this plan that we've come up with is not a rollback. We haven't said let's spend less money or do less work,we've been able to say we're able to spend less money, and we're actually going to do less work but only because there is less infrastructure that will need to be built, and it is that unnecessary infrastructure that is not being built. At the end of the day, the metrics that we're going for that are in the CSO Policy is the amount of wet weather that you're capturing and treating, and the percentage of time that you are complying with that water quality criteria. In terms of the water quality criteria,we really are equal to the$200 million plan. Its equal to the$700 million Long-Term Control Plan,and in regard to the wet water capture,we're actually going to do better with the SAGE plan rather than the$700 million plan,by a number of percentage points actually. We can never totally foresee what is going to happen, but when you're dealing with a technical renegotiation like this,we've done the hard work and we have a good plan, we've been able to draw from past investment, and this is not a lesser solution, so that makes our job a little bit easier. He went on, Some comments from recent correspondence with regulators that I thought were interesting: "EPA and IDEM strongly encourage South Bend's efforts to develop a less expensive Long-Term Control Plan," that's a key thing from a much bigger letter. They shouldn't be just looking for us to spend money, if we can get to the same point in the road it shouldn't make a big difference to them. "South Bend has pursued an innovative approach by installing over one- hundred (100) smart sensors in its sewer system." They recognize that we're innovative and they are encouraging us to go down that route farther.They won't make it easy for us,it will be difficult negotiations, but we're hoping we have everybody on board that we need and we'll hopefully be successful. Mr. Horvath stated, This is a multi-year effort to get to the point where we have the right plan to take to the DOJ and it wasn't staff just coming up with this. We also hired some really brilliant people to work on it,but there was also the citizen's advisory crew which had a really broad section of our community involved. We had Council Members on there, business owners, environmentalists, financial people, attorneys, and all sorts of people representing different interests, so we could push each other and get to a good plan. That's one(1) of the reasons we've been able to get a lot of letters of support, even from environmental groups. Sometimes,that's one of the things the EPA really worries about. They are worried about these third(3'd)party lawsuits that could come from the Sierra Club or somewhere else because you're degrading the environment. We also feel pretty confident that although we've been able to get the costs down, our percent capture is also going up. The guidance documents say they want to get you to where you are capturing eighty-five percent(85%) of your wet weather flow, and we're going to be over ninety-eight percent(98%), so we're blowing that out of the water. There are programs where they have put agreements in place that are far less than that threshold, so we feel strongly that we have EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f574.235.9173 TTD 574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 9 CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK an approach here that really is very good for the environment,but also one(1)that is affordable to our residents. The approach by the EPA hasn't been involved in these in the past. I did notice a difference going there the first (1St) couple of times, with other cities, they almost treat you as environmental criminals.They're like,you guys are polluting the water,you're violating the Clean Water Act, and you guys need to pay. And it was really tough, because typically people in Public Works are environmentalists at heart, and they're really trying to do good things to protect water quality, so staff took it really hard because they felt like they were getting beat up unfairly. This time around, though, I thought they were very receptive. I think one (1)thing that helped was the results that showed we went from 2 billion gallons of overflow to 500 million gallons, we reduced by seventy-five percent (75%), and that was not easy. It was a lot of hard work and separations and other stuff that went into that. I think they've been very receptive,they like the results they've seen, but they're still a little bit cynical. We have to prove it to them, and we'll hope that they'll come along once they see we've done our homework and we have a good plan. Mr. Fahey added, I think since this is a more innovative plan than they've seen in other situations, they will probably have more questions for us. Councilmember Jo M. Broden asked, When was your most recent meeting with IDEM and the EPA, and when is the next one (1)? Mr. Fahey stated, The most recent one (1) was the fall of last year. They gave us a large amount of homework to do based on that. They were looking for a lot of data. We're in the position at the moment where that has been proofread and it is going to be going to them ideally this week. Councilmember Broden asked, And that's in advance of the March meeting? Mr. Fahey stated,There are two(2)requests in the package they sent out.One(1)is that previously, we had the Regional Administrator to South Bend which was very beneficial, but then she offered some of their career staff that deals with this more frequently so we can tell them and show them what we are talking about with smart sewers, and then also a request to have another technical meeting in the next three(3) weeks. Councilmember Broden asked, And that Regional Administrator is fairly new to the position, right? Mr. Fahey stated, Yes, she started about twelve(12)months ago. Committee Chair Teshka stated, I think that's something we've talked about before. Realistically, those long-term staff relationships are key, right? Because whether we can be in it, we can be in the same Administration two (2) years from now, or in a different Administration with a different Administrator, but it's likely that the career staffers will be there as well. I think the best thing, right,would be that President Buttigieg says,"just give these guys what they want."It kind of feels like we work those relationships with the career staffers, and thank you for all of the work that you're doing. We're really up against a time crunch. Say we get the meeting in three (3) or four (4) weeks, what does the timeline look like? What is the optimal outcome? Mr. Fahey stated, Looking right now, the way the consent decree was written, we don't have a deadline now until the end of 2023. We need to think in advance, but there is time right now. EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend.Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f574.235.9173 TTD574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 10 ®CITY OF SOUTH BEND ! OFFICE OF THE CLERK Before that there were deadlines every six (6) months to a year, but at the moment, we can work on this renegotiation while remaining in compliance, which is key. We don't want to go in there having broken the law, we want to have a good reputation. At the moment, it is easy enough to comply because we have very little infrastructure to build, we just basically have some reporting obligations. The next deadline isn't for three (3) or four(4) years. Mr. Horvath stated, Having said that,we're going to be pushed hard to have something before the end of this year. That's important because we don't want to be negotiating this during election time because things get crazy, and we also don't want to be negotiating it under a new Administration, because then you start all over again. You'll most likely have a new regional Administrator and then you have to reeducate somebody else on this whole thing. We're going to push for that, and we'll have to see if it's moving along well enough to see if we get to the point where we're going to have an agreement, or whether we think that they're pushing us to a point we're not willing to go and we'll have to file a lawsuit and go to court, and try to let the courts work it out. That, of course, is not the ideal position to be in because who knows where it will end up. It may not go in our favor. There have been cases where courts have pushed back on cities,but we have to be willing to do that if we feel strongly that we have a strong plan that makes sense, and they're not going for it for whatever reason. Committee Chair Teshka asked, And if we get to that point where we are in litigation, those deadlines remain, right? We would still have to be in compliance with the original LTCP? Mr. Horvath stated, They would probably be willing to do a stay during that period of honest negotiations,but at some point those things might be off if it breaks down. Committee Chair Teshka asked, So we're kind of in this period where we don't have any deadlines to meet? Speaking with a resident recently who is concerned that we weren't doing any work on this in terms of the last project, I'm not sure, and again I wanted to bring it up to you guys and ask, was the East Bank separator completed in this? Mr. Horvath answered, Yes, late 2017. There are projects that are required in the LTCP, and there are also ones that benefit what we are trying to do here that give us additional benefits beyond just reducing the amount of combined sewage in the system like adding longevity to the sewers and doing improvements to the plant that need to be done. We've continued to do a lot of that work. We just finished a $15 million clarifier project that needed to be done. We're doing a lot of work on the treatment plant that dates back thirty (30) years that hasn't been updated and needs to be done because it's going to break if we don't. We've also been lining the sewers,and when we have projects,for example,this next phase of Western from Dundee to Falcon, we're putting permeable pavers in to try to take some of that load off the system and we also separated the sewers because we already have the street torn up. We put a new sewer in that can handle the storms along with permeable pavers. East Bank was the last one (1) on the list of"have to dos" but a lot of these projects have benefitted where we are and continue to benefit where we are, and that's what we'll continue to do,the things we have to do anyway. The Western Avenue sewers are probably ninety (90) years old at least, and so they are going to have problems pretty soon. Committee Chair Teshka asked, And the lining on the sewers gives us fifty(50)more years? Mr. Horvath stated,Yes, fifty(50) years at least, it gives you full integrity of the system. EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend.Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f574.235.9173 TTD 574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 11 ®CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK Committee Chair Teshka stated,Because of my unfortunate situation of having the line break away from my house, the plumber came out and showed us how you can line it from your house to the street. It sounds like a weird concept, but it is a really durable material. Mr. Horvath stated, It is almost like running a pipe inside the steel pipe. Committee Chair Teshka opened the floor to Committee Members. Committeemember Sharon McBride stated, I'm just happy to see this moving along because I've been getting a lot of calls to meet with you all from the Sunnymede, Wayne, and River Park neighbors as well. I told them to hold on until after March for us to get into the neighborhoods to get them up to speed. I commend you all. I've been out to the plant several times, I inspected it when I was a risk manager. You guys have always been ahead of the curve and you're doing a lot of good things and I'm excited to hopefully be a part of it moving forward. Councilmember White requested a copy of the presentation. She stated, We would also like to thank your staff and those that have worked so hard to come and look at an alternative plan. I am very hopeful that it will be received, and anything we can do as a Council, I would be more than happy to do so. I want to go back to that one (1) slide, for capital income. I want to make sure I have a clear understanding of that. We talk about affordability, so what we're saying, is that our current capital is $19,000. And then the twenty nine point six percent (29.6%), almost thirty percent(30%) income is at$20,000. So, again, I think that is something we have struggled with. I know we have all of these unfunded mandates, and they are important for our citizens and the environment,but the issue becomes how do we afford to do what is right,but also what is required? And I think these figures really support what you're striving towards, which is to make sure that we are responding to our environment and what needs to happen,but also trying to align what our citizens can actually afford. Mr. Fahey stated, That's pragmatic environmentalism. Councilmember White stated, Ok, we'll use that. That's the struggle. Mr. Horvath stated, Absolutely. Ten percent (10%) or fourteen percent (14%) of your income going to pay your sewer bill. Committee Chair Teshka stated,And I think that's where there is a lot of concern. I've heard from residents who want to follow along in this process, they've seen rates go up over the years, and that happens everywhere. But we've had a series of rate increases and so they want to say, at least, if we're paying this, what's going on with it, what kinds of improvements are we making? I think these types of updates are good because we can take these back and people can see all the good work that we are doing, and all of the improvements being made. We have an aging infrastructure and we have issues we have to address. Councilmember Broden asked, The questions and topics I sent you, since I was late, have we hit any of those? In the meantime, I know it is very difficult to have a pure city because of where we are geographically, and I think about how the next city with an alternative plan is going to have a much easier pathway. Who could be one (1) of those next cities in that would benefit from this in EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f574.235.9173 TTD574.235.5567 vwvw.southbendin.gov 12 0 CITY OF SOUTH BEND 1 OFFICE OF THE CLERK Indiana, if we're looking at this as a statewide issue? Who else is in the hopper with a plan either as onerous or similar in terms of the Long-Term Control Plan? Mr. Fahey stated, Probably Evansville. Councilmember Broden asked, Fort Wayne isn't in that? Mr. Horvath stated, Fort Wayne isn't as expensive. Mr. Fahey stated, They had previously, with some foresight, built facilities at the treatment plant that have now been repurposed. I went to visit them to find out specifically what they were doing. Mr. Horvath stated, They have huge lagoons, and now it would be really tough to try to build an open-air lagoon. We would not have any area residents who would want them around because occasionally we would get some smell from it, but since theirs have been there since the 1950's, they're used to having them. So, Evansville is probably the closest. Mishawaka has some issues that they're going to be dealing with as well. In terms of the burden of how much they're asking us to do to get to the environmental benefit, we have one (1) of the most restrictive decrees anywhere, nationally. Councilmember Broden stated, When you came to the North Shore Triangle meetings to give us an update,you had mentioned a bit of an update on Mishawaka and their efforts. Maybe just briefly tonight or as follow up to this meeting, what are they doing overall? Mr.Fahey replied,I know that they had proposed a small tunnel to burrow.The initial investigation into that realized it was deeper than they initially expected which would make it more expensive. They're entering into renegotiations at the moment as well, but other than that they were talking about a lot less dollar amounts. Committee Chair Teshka then opened the floor to members of the public. Jason Banicki, 3822 Ford Street, asked, Is this slideshow going to be available somewhere so the public can get to it? Mr. Horvath replied, We redid our website, so I'll check. We used to have every presentation for the CSO on there, so we'll put another link up. Mr. Banicki went on, And you mentioned the Western project, I live over there. I've seen it, its amazing. You guys are doing a lot of great work, particularly managing the costs. Are there other areas where we're doing the paving work, or other things like separating the sewers, doing the lining, besides Western Avenue currently? Mr. Horvath replied, Yeah, every time we touch a road we look at it as an opportunity to do something now. The Ironwood, Corby, Rockne intersection, we're taking the opportunity to build a detention basin there by the church and putting storm lines and separating in that area. It is also going to be large enough to extend them a little bit further in the future. Smart Streets has permeable pavers. EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f 574.235.9173 TTD574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 13 CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK Councilmember Broden asked, What about Bendix? There is significant work going on there. Mr. Horvath replied, I would have to look at the plans, I don't recall if those are already separated or not. But every chance that we get,we're looking at either separating or taking water sources off the line. It's not legal for us to add new sources to it, so that is something we have to be very cognizant of. I think we do have some separation on Bendix as well. Councilmember Broden asked, Douglas,right?But with the County, is that some type of exchange on the work on that? I thought I saw it at MACOG. Mr. Horvath replied, That's the sewer lift station there. Sue Kessim, 4022 Kennedy Drive, stated, I would like to do a little more research on those sewer liners so I was just wondering the brand or what they're called. Mr. Horvath stated, We write specs and bid all of that out every year, and last year Insituform got the bid. This year, I think Reynolds Inliner if I recall, was the one (1) that won the award. They use very similar processes, and it is just a tube that they blast into the sewer and it has a curing agent and it cures and becomes really hard, so it becomes a pipe within a pipe. We're doing it on small sewers, and we're also doing it on very large sewers. The last segment we did was the Bowman Creek area. We're getting a lot of filtration in one (1) of those major lines that goes by Riley and up towards LangLab. It helps tremendously. What happens is, these old sewers in particular, a lot of them have low ground water level and you have a ton of water coming in as they crack over time. Some of them, in the good old days, in the 1890's, all of these sewers went to the river. It wasn't until 1956 that we had a treatment plant. Every time you built a sewer, you built it to the river. Sometimes they wouldn't even put the pipes together, they would leave gaps on purpose so it would help get water to lower the ground water table so the water wouldn't go into basements. We just have a lot of leaky sewers because they didn't use to worry about it too much. So that's what we're trying to prevent. With the sensors in the sewers, we can figure out where we have the leakiest sewers, so we look at, in particular, certain times like 3:00 a.m. We know there should be very little flow going through the sewer at that time. If we see a lot of flow, we know that is mostly inflow and infiltration coming in. Ms. Kessim continued, I was thinking there was an issue about a size by Holy Cross College, where it was going smaller or something and that was creating some problem with the flooding or something. There was a size differential. Mr. Horvath stated, That is on Angela. That area has been separated, so it might look a little odd. If you built sanitary only sewers in that area,only to handle the flushing coming from those homes, you can use a much smaller pipe. So typically, a neighborhood like that might have an eight (8) inch line or a ten (10)inch line, and those can handle hundreds of homes. When you're looking at the amount of flow that it will take, it depends on the type of pipe. In the old days, when they had both the rain water and the sanitary sewer on it,they had to make them bigger. If we don't,it backs up in the basement. So you could have a twenty-four(24)inch line that really, for sanitary reasons, only needs to be eight(8) inches,but it is built as a twenty-four(24)because it has to handle some of the stormwater as well. When you redo them, sometimes they won't redo certain pipes because they're in good shape. You might have a pipe in there that is bigger than it needs to be. It looks odd because you might have an eighteen (18) inch pipe going into a ten (10) inch pipe, but the EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f574.235.9173 I 10574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 14 CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK reality is, that eighteen (18) inch pipe is only getting eight (8) inches worth of flow or less, but it was just bigger because it used to be combined and it's not anymore. Rather than replace all of that, they kept it as a sanitary line. Typically when you do these revitalizations, if the pipe is in good enough shape, you'll keep the combined line as your sanitary line because it is already set at an elevation for the sewer levels to come out and attach to there, and then you usually run a new storm line a little bit higher than that. That way you can hit all of the elevations of the homes in that area so you don't have to go back and build a brand new lateral from the home to the sewer. So I think that's the case there,if you look there is an old combined system,and now it is a smaller amount of flow and it could be a smaller pipe, but they left it in because it was in good shape. Councilmember Broden asked, Is there an executive summary that Council could have on your report that is going to the EPA in a couple of weeks? Mr. Fahey stated, We have an introduction. Councilmember Broden stated, We'll take that. Mr. Fahey stated, I would like to ask the attorney first (1St) of all, because of the ongoing negotiations. Councilmember Broden stated, That is perfectly understandable. She continued,The current Long-Term Control Plan hit list and the others that benefit,that project list, is there a way to give us a few of the 2018 things that are checked off? I think you did this to a degree. Mr. Horvath stated,What we gave before was a list of all of the ones in the LTCP that we checked off, but now in addition we've done the other ones. We decided that it makes sense to show the EPA that we're not just sitting on our hands, we're doing real work here. So we have a collage of projects that have been done. Councilmember Broden stated, When you can share that piece, that would be helpful. And then because some of these things fall from different funds, some come from sewer, some come from redevelopment, if there's a way to note the funding source, I mean, you have the overall dollar amount, but for our benefit and then for people tracking from home,just a sense of main funding source. Mr. Fahey stated, Most of it is wastewater. Mr. Horvath stated, Ninety-five percent(95%) is funded by wastewater. Committee Chair Teshka stated, We can fund this through TIF, right? Mr. Horvath stated, An example of TIF would have been smart sewer work on the Smart Streets program. The permeable pavers on the Smart Streets program was all TIF dollars, so that took some of the load off of the combined system. On Western, our plan is to use stcitmwater funds, and that is still the plan to create a new storm sewer and do all of the separation there;We eArttry to get that, but it is mostly going to be wastewater. EXCELLENCE j ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 1227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend.Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f 574.235.9173 TTD 574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 15 CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK Mr. Fahey stated, Consider everything wastewater unless otherwise stated. Councilmember Broden stated, So that is a look back to 2018? 2017? Mr. Fahey stated, It goes back to 2004. Councilmember Broden stated, But then what about just 2019 fiscal year. That would be helpful. Mr. Horvath stated, We have some sewer lining work and other projects. Committee Chair Teshka stated, Like she said,it would be helpful when talking to residents about this issue,to tell them where the money goes. Councilmember Broden stated, I think this meeting helps because it's an update, but I think the context that you provided, this is basically a request. And we're putting our best foot forward in terms of our request and providing the data, but there's also another level that this gets to possibly through the legal channels if we can't negotiate it. And I would assume that the environment has changed considerably at the EPA. Mr. Horvath stated, It feels like it has. I think some people are going to wait things out, stall as much as they can. Committee Chair Teshka stated, What I would like to do through this year,just to keep meeting at whatever interval makes sense,but I think we can do quick fifteen(15)minute updates during our regular Monday meetings. We'll get together on what interval makes sense after the meeting. We would like to know how your meeting went,what we can be doing to help,if we can apply pressure to our Congressional delegation,seeing what works best. To wrap up,we're all going to get a copy of this presentation from somewhere, and it is going to be on the website. Councilmember Broden asked, Maybe we could establish a folder on our website since it is an ongoing thing, people can actually get historical information if we could build in the links that you've shared before. Mr. Horvath stated, I think we should just put them where we've been putting all of them so they are not in two (2) different places. We have a CSO area and put every presentation on there and we'll just add it to that. If for some reason it has been taken down,we'll make sure it gets back up. Councilmember Broden stated, And our Committee Meetings could go there too, our meeting minutes. With no further business, Committee Chair Teshka adjourned the Utilities Committee meeting at 6:24 p.m. Respectfully Submitted, Jake Teshka, Committee Chair EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend.Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f574.235.9173 TTD 574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 16