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Environmental Protection Agency. That Consent Decree laid out a series of steps that the City <br /> was compelled to take in order to bring it closer to compliance. That work was already underway <br /> by the time my Administration came in and our Administration continued that plan. As you will <br /> see in the presentation(which is available in the City Clerk's Office), Phase One (1) included a <br /> total of$149 million in investments. The net effect of Phase One (1) has significantly reduced <br /> the number of occasions when untreated water enters the river. We also established an office to <br /> deal with this Long Term Control Plan Implementation. The longer we did the work, the more it <br /> became clear that there were going to be major issues in completing the plan as it was originally <br /> laid out. On one (1) hand, the City was required to implement this plan by federal law. On the <br /> other hand, the more it was looked at, the more expensive it became. The only way we could pay <br /> for this to work was through sewer rates. That means residential, commercial and industrial rate- <br /> payers would pick up the tab. There is no funding from the Federal Government for the Federal <br /> mandate. So we knew further analysis was required and you will be hearing more about that in <br /> detail. One (1)helpful thing was that because South Bend was an early adopter in Smart Sewers, <br /> the City was uniquely able to do analysis using real-time data that was gathered from the system. <br /> We may have inherited the expensive long-term control plan, but we also inherited some of the <br /> best sewer technology in the world which allowed us to use real-time data to see how good the <br /> plan was. There are also a number of passionate and committed individuals that came together to <br /> make this plan happen and that will be exemplified throughout this presentation. I want to thank <br /> and acknowledge those folks. I would also like to thank the Council, as well as the private <br /> partners that have all come together to make this plan work. <br /> Mayor Buttigieg continued, So the analysis which you are about to see has good news and bad <br /> news. The bad news is it was even more expensive than we feared. The ballpark number that was <br /> talked about when we took office was around $500 million. The original version of the Long <br /> Term Control Plan according to the analysis would be $713 million more than the $149 million <br /> that has already gone in. So that comes to $861 million if there are no charges. The even worse <br /> news is that it probably wouldn't achieve the goals that were required of us, knowing what we <br /> now know. The plan that was agreed upon did, however, represent the best good-faith efforts of <br /> the administration at the time,knowing what they knew then. But several things have changed, <br /> including our ability to analyze what this plan would actually look like, not to mention the <br /> technologies and the alternatives that exist. The bottom line is that the analysis shows the plan's <br /> unaffordability,to which many in the community are expressing fear. The analysis suggested <br /> that some families could be paying up to ten percent (10%) of their income just for this project. <br /> So the good news is the analysis has pointed the way toward a better alternative. We believe <br /> there is a way to do this for about$200 million. That's about half a billion dollars less than the <br /> price tag that was initially set for the original plan. However,that still only exists on paper. In <br /> other words, as of today we are still required as a matter of federal law to pursue the older,more <br /> expensive, inferior plan. So in order to change that, we are going to need permission. We are <br /> going to have to go to the table and meet with the Department of Justice,the Environmental <br /> Protection Agency and the State to ask them to allow us to pursue this better way. Part of that <br /> will be showing the environmental benefits because this includes green-infrastructure solutions. <br /> Part of this is also showing that the community is united and is rallying around the sense of <br /> urgency in finding a better and more affordable way. We are continuing to engage policymakers <br /> on the bigger picture. There are three (3)tracks going on here. The first is the technical track. <br /> That includes finding out what it is going to take, what it is going to cost and whether there is a <br /> 2 <br />