03-27-18 Utilities - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK time to what degree FEMA will be participating as well. In total,we are looking at a little over$3 million in damage. CSO update and construction projects for 2018 Kieran Fahey,Director of the Long-Term Control Plan with offices on the 13th floor of the County- City Building, stated, I think in times like these, it is important to give some context as to what the Long-Term Control Plan is and what it isn't. We have an existing Combined Sewer Overflow Consent Decree with the EPA and we've spent the last y working on this alternative that will meet the same environmental objectives. In principal,the objective of the Long-Term Control Plan (LTCP) is meant to meet water quality objectives and, to some extent, impact and improve water quantity as well. The LTCP is not going to be a catch-all cure for times like these. Some of the numbers that Eric mentioned were important. Over fourteen (14) billion gallons a day during the flood had passed through South Bend.The St.Joseph River basin has lost fifty-three percent(53%) of its wetlands and seventy percent (70%) of that is in Indiana alone. The sheer scale of it is remarkable. We had an initial Consent Decree that I refer to as the $713 million plan, We are now in the stage of renegotiation and I will give you an update on that too. I would like to talk about the sheer volume first of all. Even with that $700 million non-affordable plan that would have more than doubled every household's sewer bill,we would still have had a storage volume of just about twenty(20)million gallons. So when you put that into context versus the sixteen(16)billion gallons or fourteen(14)billion gallons that passed through,we would still be at that same volume and nothing would have affected that. We've been making improvements upstream with the interceptor and in the neighborhoods in relation to the consolidation or sewers, and we plan to build a large tank at the Wastewater Treatment Plant. Every neighborhood will be effected by the LTCP in a positive way, especially with the planned green infrastructure. Mr. Fahey continued, The most important thing about the SAGE Plan is that it is not just an alternative but it really is the only alternative because,without it,we don't have an affordable plan. And without an affordable plan, we don't have any plan. Last ye ,we met with IDEM about half a dozen times. We also went with the EPA at their Region Five (5) office which is responsible for us, that is in Chicago. That was last September. The next stage of this renegotiation is seeking Federal approval. We need to invite the new Regional Administrator of the EPA to South Bend, along with the Commissioner of IDEM to impress upon them that we are doing things dramatically different here and that we can still meet the same environmental objectives and improve the water quality locally, while at the same time having an affordable plan. So our plan is in April, we will bring out these high-powered Environmental Regulators in the region to continue this negation. We hope to win them over with this obvious good plan we have here. Our plan isn't just that we would solve it in South Bend,but we hope to suggest to these Regulators to take what we are doing in South Bend and bring it to other communities as well. We have two (2) programs I would like to highlight toni ht. The City requires all downspouts to be disconnected. A downspout has a dramatic effect on a home as all that roof rain water is being diverted. Ideally we would like to create the capacity into our system but, if that capacity isn't there at all, it can't leave the property. What is happening is the people with connected downspouts are directly affecting the likelihood of flooding in people's homes. Any resident can call 311 and until the end of this we will disconnect their downspout for free. It is a simple process and a simple application form. I encourage people to do that. Secondly, we have a basement valve program. For simplicity,we call it the basement valve program. It is actually to prevent basement flooding so if somebody has an alternative name for it, we will entertain that as well. The idea with that is, again, by calling 311, EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 1 227 W.Jefferson Bvld I South Bend,Indiana 466011 p 574.235.9221 If 574.235.9173 1 TTD 574.235.5567 I www.southbendin.gov 4