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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-27-18 Utilities �O U \PB CE x x 1865 OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK KAREEMAH N. FOWLER, CITY CLERK UTILITIES MARCH 27, 2018 5:30 P.M. Committee Members Present: Dr. David Varner, Regina Williams-Preston Committee Members Absent: Oliver Davis, Sharon L. McBride Other Council Present: Tim Scott, Karen White, Jo M. Broden(late) Other Council Absent: John Voorde, Gavin Ferlic Others Present: Kareemah Fowler, Jennifer Coffinan, Bob Palmer Presenters: Eric Horvath, Kieran Fahey, Kara Boyles Agenda: Flood update and any lessons learned Sewer issues in the low-lying areas of South Bend CSO update and construction projects for 2018 Committee Chair Dr. David Varner called to order the Utilities Committee meeting at 5:30 p.m. He introduced members of the Committee. He then stated, I polled a few members of the public in attendance and it seems the biggest interest today is the update on the recent flooding event. That will take precedence with regard to the presentation. The CSO issue is something that has been going on in the community and that is the Combined Sewer Overflow. That plays a part in the flooding issue and also has to deal with water treatment. The process with regard to the CSO is continuing in the hope that the original Consent Decree, which was approaching $1 billion, could be brought down to something more affordable for the City while obtaining the same results. Councilmember Jo M. Broden arrived at the meeting at 5:32 p.m. Committee Chair Dr. Varner proceeded to give the floor to the presenters. Flood update and any lessons learned Sewer issues in the low-lying areas of South Bend Eric Horvath,Director of Public Works with offices on the 13`h floor of the County-City Building, stated, Good evening and thank you for inviting me to present. Presenting with me tonight will be Kieran Fahey who is our Director of the Long-Term Control Plan as well as Dr. Boyles who is our City Engineer. I will talk about the flood event itself and some of the events that happened. I will discuss some of the public damage we sustained and then Kieran will talk about the CSO-related INTEGRrrY1 SERVICE1 ACCESSIBILITY JENNIFER M.COFFMAN BuNCA L.TYRADo JOSEPH R MOLNAR CmF DEPDTY/DI mmoR OF OPERATIONS DEPUTY/DDIECFOR OF POLICY ORDINANCE VIOLATION CLERK EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 1 227 W.Jefferson Blvd.I South Bend,Indiana 466011 p 574.235.92211 f 574.235.9173 1 www.southbendin.gov ®CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK issues and hopefully we hit the areas you want us to hit.If not,we will gladly take questions.Then, Dr. Boyles will finish with talking about projects we have on our queue for 2018 and what we are doing for some of the flood mitigation studies. Mr. Horvath continued, To start off, our first priority when the event hit was really just public safety and trying to minimize losses. We were in emergency response mode for the first couple weeks. Although the flood came very quickly, it didn't recede as quickly as it came so it took a while for us to get down to normal levels. It has just been within the last couple of weeks we are at the point to completely open the roads again and start assessing some of the damage that happened.From there,we moved into recovery mode and got the Emergency Management Agency (EMA)to make sure we had everyone reporting. We were also looking at the public infrastructure and the immediate issues needed to be addressed. We are still currently in recovery mode right now. We have had pretty good reporting of flood damage throughout the County. We just had a meeting to walk through all the damaged areas to try and make sure we are able to meet that public assistance threshold number and qualify for some assistance in the area. I know FEMA is here and will be in this area the next couple weeks. They are also looking at Marshall County and a few other surrounding Counties. In addition, there are other groups out and around the State that will help assess the damage so that we can look at having a Declaration from FEMA. In addition to that,we are also starting on the next stages which are mitigation and preparedness.Those are some of the lessons learned type things of how to communicate better with folks next time something like this happens. We are also looking to see if there are measures we can take to help mitigate future instances. We also have a meeting in late April with the Army Corps of Engineers to sit down and talk about potential funding sources for mitigation measures and possible ways of partnership. Mr. Horvath went on, Speaking to the event itself, as you know, we crested at twelve point seven (12.7) feet. It was a historic crest. In 2016's event, we had flash floods. That event is completely different from this event. In the 2016 event we had a tremendous amount of rain, it was over nine (9) inches of rain in under twenty-four(24)hours. We had a 1,000 year rain event but, at the same time,the river crested at four point four (4.4.) feet so it handled a lot of the flow. That was due to a lot of the other conditions that were present. In this recent particular case,we had less than three (3) inches of rain, but, combined with the snow on the ground and frozen ground, it created a situation where the river ended up cresting at twelve point seven (12.7) feet which is almost two (2) feet higher than our previous record. So, this was a significant event. Dr. Hamlet at the University of Notre Dame studies Climate Change and Climate Models.He went back through the data collected since 1931. When we say the phrase `one hundred (100) year storm,' it means you have a one percent (1%)chance of exceeding that during the year. So the likelihood of having a one hundred (100) year storm in one hundred (100) years is one (1), you will have one (1). So when you look at that and you take the peak flow we hit, and translate it using the probabilistic algorithms he put together, he concluded it was a 2,500 year flood. So, this is a really epic proportion. Our systems are not designed for that and we won't be able to have a system that will completely mitigate an issue like this in the future. I think that is important for everyone to understand as we go through his process of looking at measures we can take to make things better in the future. If we get another extreme event of this nature,there is nothing we can do. Mr. Horvath continued, This (referencing a slide of the presentation available in the City Clerk's Office) is our watershed area. You can see South Bend is about forty (40) square miles. Our watershed area is almost 4,700 square miles. So all of that water was going to the St.Joseph River. 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 574.235.91731 T M 574.235.5567 lwww.southbendin.gov 2 ®CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK A lot of our wetlands have been lost, that exacerbated the issue. In addition to that, we are seeing since 1975, we had about twenty percent (20%) more precipitation events than we had before. Things have changed when you look at the data long-term. These were the certain hotspot areas (depicted on the presentation). These were the areas where we had the most calls on flooding events. Primarily, most of that was just basements. However, we did have some areas where the first floor was submerged as well. When you map all of those, this is what it looked like. That is not to say those were the only areas but those were definitely,by far,the hardest hit areas. He then depicted a picture that showed the one hundred (100) year floodplain and the five hundred (500) year floodplain. He stated, If you look at these areas and we overlay the flood damage from the recent event,this is what we get. It is really close to those lines. He then showed different pictures of different flooded areas within the City.He stated,We did have homes and businesses completely under water. As bad as this situation was,these red dots(referencing the presentation)are calls for flooding that had basement flooding. So, in the previous three (3) years, twenty-five (25) calls or about one point four percent (1.4%) came from those four (4) hardest hit areas. So, a very small percentage. The reason that is important is because we are going to have to look at mitigation in these hardest hit areas, but there are also ongoing issues throughout the City that are needing to be addressed. I want to make the point we have got a system that is one hundred and fifty(150)years old. There is a lot of pipe in the ground that is one hundred(100)years old or more,and the original system was built as a combined system that took the sanitary flow and the storm flow and dumped it straight into the river. The river was really our sewer for the first one hundred(100)years of our existence. For the last sixty (60) years, we built an interceptor and intercepted that flow. The way they designed it was such that when we got these rain events, the sewer would overflow into the river as opposed to overflowing into someone's basement. That is what you hope will happen every time. The last thing you want is sewage in someone's basement. Given the choice between putting it in the river or someone's basement,we are always trying to make sure it gets to the river. The issue is each storm system is different and that is why we are creating this Long-Term Control Plan to better handle these events. In this particular event,the river got so high that there were two (2)issues happening. One(1)was that the CSOs couldn't operate because,hydraulically,the water couldn't get out. The other thing that was happening is river water coming back into the sewer system itself because of the river being so high. Councilmember Karen White left the meeting at 5•.45 p.m. Mr. Horvath went on, Very quickly, here (referencing the presentation) are our greatest damage areas in terms of public infrastructure,not including the private components. A thing to note is the way the City was planned. We have a lot of parks planned along the river that were meant to flood and that really helps from a mitigation standpoint because it gives the water somewhere to go. But, that is also where we sustained most of our damage. When we looked at the damage sustained at the Wastewater Treatment Plant,it is somewhere around$225,000 total. We were pretty fortunate even because it was completely under water. We had close to $2.5 million total of damage to our parks. We have crumbled retaining walls, buckled sidewalks, sinkholes, debris and slope failures. Our chlorine system and other things were completely underwater but when the water receded and we dried everything out,we had to replace some of our electrical lines,but we only sustained about $25,000 worth of damage. We did sustain some damage to a wall at the treatment center and that will be about $200,000 worth of work. We are still working on this stuff to be insured. We are trying to figure all that out. We are trying to figure out what makes most sense and will be coming back to you for appropriations to do some fixes and figure all that out. We will also know at that EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building(227 W.Jefferson Bvld I South Bend,Indiana 466011 p 574.235.9221 If 574.235.9173 1 TM574.235.5567 iwww.southbendin.gov 3 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 CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK residents will apply and the City will cover up to fifty percent (50%) of the cost of that basement valve installation. The maximum reimbursement we will give is $1,500. So far, the average reimbursement has been nine hundred dollars ($900). Mr. Fahey went on, Tying those two (2) programs together I always say that the basement valve program in combination with a connected downspout is a disaster waiting to happen. If you're disconnected from the sewer system and you have a connected downspout, all that rainwater is going to end up in your basement. It is no longer a question of if, it is a question of what. He referenced a slide in the presentation that showed other tips to handle extreme precipitation events. He stated, The City is here to help residents however they can. The LTCP is a long-term plan as we have fifteen (15) years remaining in that plan. We are also rolling out green infrastructure in nine (9) keys areas as well where they will divert storm water runoff from entering inappropriate locations. This includes some short-term projects and City Engineer Dr. Kara Boyles will speak about these in a bit more detail soon but we have four(4)main areas that were affected in the map Eric highlighted earlier, that are areas of increased observation. The Sewer Crews are out at the moment. We have the storm lines,the combined lines and the sanitary lines. We are targeting each area and each set of lines individually. I was out with them myself last Thursday in the Northshore Triangle area as the Public Works Department recently purchased a new truck do this kind of work. We have better resources and are better able to tackle this. The first step in the process is gathering data from this event. We need to be sure the sewer system didn't get damaged in any particular way by dealing with the sheer volumes it had to process over the event. Secondly, we need to see if everything we think we know about the system is as accurate as it should be. We will be doing what we call GIS ground-truthing. The GIS map we all use for information is only as accurate as the information that is contained in it so we have to make sure that is all up to date. I mentioned also that the green infrastructure storm water basins have been approved by the Board of Public works in the Master Plan. We will start on that as soon as possible to roll out design principles, objectives and assessments of the locations for those. Mr. Fahey continued, Director Horvath had also mentioned the back-flow devices. The same principle of a back flow prevention for a basement needs to be on other major sewer lines. We currently have those on most of the CSOs so that the river can't intrude into the CSO system because that is a cost to us to have to treat that water. When we put those bills on, we eliminated millions of gallons of back flow, and that was essential. Now, one (1) of the things we look at as part of this is to ensure the storm lines are not affected by the height the river achieved. Dr. Boyles will address some specifics in relation to some of the projects we have coming up. Councilmember Tim Scott stated, With this, I think a lot of misinformation comes out. I had someone tell me they just poured concrete down their drain to keep that water from coming up. Mr. Fahey replied, I would like to see their basement and see what kind of connections they have there. The advantage with a floor drain, obviously is not to prevent external flooding entering into the basement,but there are times when water is internal and the water has somewhere to go. I talk about the advantages of people putting in a standpipe.A standpipe is different to a basement valve in that is doesn't fight the pressure, it accepts it and it equalizes it. People need a floor drain in their basement and I don't think people should pour concrete down the drain. EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY ( INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 1227 W.Jefferson Bvld I South Bend,Indiana 466011 p 574.235.9221 If 574.235.9173 TTD574.235.5567 iwww.southbendin.gov 5 ®CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK Mr. Horvath stated, That would be an issue because that floor drain may have drainage on the backside that is connected. I would advise against that. They do have valves you can screw into floor drains that will completely block it so that it won't come up. Councilmember Scott followed up, With all the water that we had, there were also concerns from people about the check-value system you talked about. They had that in there but can those be damaged with back pressure from this much water? Mr. Fahey replied, With a good amount of pressure, it actually increased the seal on the valve. However, situations we have seen does suggest it finds a release somewhere. I also encourage residents to invest in as high end a system as they can afford. They should prefer metal over PVC. The cost associated with these jobs is for jackhammering the floor and what not,the actual pipe is not terribly expensive to upgrade. Councilmember Scott then stated, And the last one (1) I heard from several people was that we didn't have this issue until Elkhart opened their dam. But, every dam was open, correct? Mr. Horvath replied, We did contact AEP right away. We were trying to actually get some gates closed to protect South Bend and we were not able to get them to close any gates. That will be part of our conversation with the Army Corps. I think one (1) of the issues is if you own a private dam and your gates are open, and flooding occurs, you are not going to be responsible for anything. When you close those gates and create an issue that wasn't there, it creates an issue. I think one (1) thing we need to look at is the possibility to have the Army Corps come in and, for a short period of time have control of the dams, and try to mitigate the problems. There probably isn't a lot they can do with closing gates with 25,000 cubic feet per second going through. So it is really at least investigating to see what can happen in future events. Councilmember Jo M. Broden stated, Several neighbors in the Northshore Triangle reported valve failures. I thought that was a short-term solution we would look at to bring some plumbers in and look at the quality of valves. Is that going to happen still? Mr. Fahey replied, Definitely. We will be drafting new plans for the basement valve program and bringing it to the Board. It is important, though, to not specify too much and to allow the homeowner to find the solution that is right for their home. Many are different. But, we will be in the process of contacting plumbers and will have them do these installations. If somebody has a valve and it doesn't work,they can get a replacement. Maintenance is essential in these cases,too. The valve program itself is only one (1) year and a half old so maintenance shouldn't be a huge issue at this point but it is important down the road. Councilmember Broden followed up,So if some individuals had valves through our program,there is a commitment to go back to those homes and to understand what has gone wrong? Mr. Fahey replied, By having a conversation with them first of all, that would help us find out exactly what happened and to see what needs to be done. One (1) of the main issues with the program is that it is still quite expensive even with the fifty percent(50%)matching program. That is unfortunate for many in our community. But, sometimes it might seem to somebody that a valve has failed, but it hasn't. It is important to talk with these individuals to understand what is going 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 574.235.91731 TM 574.235.5567 I www.southbendin.gov 6 ®CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK on. The valve program is not the only answer and if there is a better solution that a plumber has suggested,that would be appropriate as well. Committee Chair Dr. Varner stated, I hope we make it clear that this is an assistance program to mitigate costs and in no way is it an assumption of liability. Mr. Fahey replied, Exactly. The City is not a part of the contract and has no obligations to the maintenance issues. Dr. Kara Boyles, City Engineer with offices on the 13th floor of the County-City Building, stated, There are a lot of aspects in this study and a lot of the questions have been asked and answered. We are engaging in what we are calling a comprehensive zero (0) capacity study for these hot spots,those four(4)areas we have been talking about tonight.That study will begin with collecting data. We will look at our GIS system, will do some ground-truthing, looking at the data, looking at the sewer system and gathering some survey data. We will also be sending out a questionnaire. We sat down a few times with residents and heard some of the issues they've had both in 2018 and 2016.That information is important for us to gather.By Friday,there should be a link on the City's website that should be available for anyone to click on and it will be a questionnaire asking questions to gather data on the residents. We will then do some system modeling. Back in 2003, there was a storm water master plan made for the City. We will engage that plan..But out of this study we will come up with some recommended improvements. Some of those might be infrastructure projects but also, we want to look at contractor best practices. We will look to make a guide for homeowners to make the best decision. There are considerations to what is the best practice. We will then go through an implementation process. Dr.Boyles continued, Some of the projects I'm going to talk about are not necessarily CSO related, but are related in the fact that they are waste water projects, drainage projects or storm projects. So, they have that indirect correlation. All these projects will be bid out this year (referencing a slide in the presentation). These are electrical upgrades at the Wastewater Treatment Plant. It is about a$4 million investment that has been needed for a while. We have aging infrastructure,poor conditioned electrical components throughout the plant and some need for some backup power in generators. We've been studying this plant and there will be quite a few elements addressed. This (referencing the presentation) is a belt filter press. In the Wastewater Treatment Plant process we generate sludge from the biological treatment side and then that goes into a dewatering process and we use the belt filter presses. We have four(4) of them and this will be the last of the four(4) to do a rehab on. We are planning to rehab a raw sewage pump, too. We have an annual program to review sewer and manhole lining. In the past year we had focused work done in the CSO eighteen (18) area. We lined large-diameter sewers and will continue doing that taking us all the way to the river. We spend about$1.5 million a year on sewer and manhole lining. Committeemember Regina Williams-Preston left the meeting at 6:17 p.m. Dr.Boyles went on,This year is the first year we will have a designated line item Fund for drainage projects. We are receiving $500,000 from Local Roads and Streets to focus on a building list of drainage needs throughout the City. These are mostly coming from residents who have issues. We have that list identified as a top ten(10),chances are we won't get to all ten(10)but we are trying. We are doing some stabilization improvements at Ravina Park. Part of those are pedestrian improvements. That has a $100,000 donation grant from the Pokagon Band and that is to handle 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 j www.southbendin.gov 7 ®CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OFTHE CLERK most of the stabilization portion and we also have some TIF money to help us do some sidewalk improvements. There have been some ongoing drainage issues down on the south side near the Martin's plaza. We did some improvements along Bowen Street this past ye ar but will also be doing some further improvements. The Miami and Ireland basin will have a dredging project. That is estimated to cost around $120,000 and will be paid for by some of the Southside TIF. The Downtown Cross Streets is out to bid. We will open bids on April 10t' for this project. This is about a$1.5 million project. We will have improvements along Colfax from Main to Michigan as well as the area in front of the Morris. We are installing storm sewer with this project. The Lincolnway West and Charles Martin intersection is another $1.1 million project to improve that intersection. There will be some new storm water lines as well. That is being paid for out of Riverwest TIF. There are some planned St. Joseph Street improvements on the south side off of Ireland Road. We hope to create a nice gateway into some new development area. We are doing around$350,000 worth of improvements there handling drainage. Lastly is Sheridan Avenue from Lincolnway West up toward the Airport. This project has been on the table for a few years now and there is great desire for this project. This would involve pavement improvements and would actually add storm sewer as well. That will be paid for out of Riverwest TIF. I've drawn attention to the funding sources as there is a lot of TIF going into these projects. Not to hammer the point but there really are no dedicated funding sources for storm water. Committee Chair Dr. Varner then opened the floor to members of the public wishing to speak to or ask questions of the presentation. Mary Wood, 620 W. Angela Boulevard, stated, Somebody has photographed large quantities of water coming down from the Notre Dame area and pouring down the old Angela coal line, which is basically our backyards. I would like to know, specifically, if part of this plan is to look at that. It was evidenced in the event of 2016 and again in 2018. Dr. Boyles replied, That will be a piece of the study that we will look at. I recognize there is a retention basin on the Holy Cross property and our understanding is that it may be that basin that, when it overflows, it floods. We will research that. It is on private property so we don't know anything about that, yet. We are in conversations with them and they have committed to looking at it. City Clerk Kareemah Fowler left the meeting at 6:25 p.m. Murray Miller, 23698 Western Avenue, asked, Are there any CSO projects being built this year? Committee Chair Dr. Varner replied, I know we have completed the major parts of the first five (5)years of the program and we are kind of waiting to see what the results of the negotiations will be. Jim Rogers, 525 Parkovash Avenue, asked, Are there TIF Funds available or that could be made available to expedite areas that experience the most extreme effects of these events? If there isn't, is there a way to pool our neighborhood into some sort of funded flood insurance arrangement? We worry about the potential for more damage. Committee Chair Dr. Varner replied, I don't know if your area is in the TIF District, but I don't think it is.There are times when circumstances will allow for the use of TIF Funds for some reason EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 1227 W.Jefferson Bvld I South Bend,Indiana 466011 p 574.235.9221 If 574.235.91731 TTD 574.235.5567 I www.southbendin gov 8 •CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK and that is something that could be explored. There have been conversations in the past to see how FEMA could help. We will have to get more information on that. Bethany McNeil, 340 Parkovash Avenue, asked, Were the twenty-five (25) backups that Mr. Horvath referenced from this event? Was it information from the EMA? Mr. Horvath replied, I was trying to point out we were much harder hit in this event than the one (1) in 2016. There were actually around one hundred and seventy (170) in this area and that is significantly more than we have ever had. The twenty-five (25) were ones that were reported the last three(3)years to our Sewage Department. That doesn't mean there were only twenty-five(25) as there could have been more. Those were just the ones reported. I was trying to show there are pervasive issues throughout the City with basement flooding issues. And those twenty-five (25) account for the last three (3) years. Kieran Olivie, 310 Tonti Street, stated, We really look to the City for guidance in times like these. I was looking to the City for guidance from water quality and we weren't getting much guidance. In the future, I would like to see more guidance. Vince Barletto, 1019 Culver Place, stated, I want to thank the Engineering Department. I understand this last event was unprecedented. I want to note that in Keller Park, many of our residents are renters. We are simply in a different state of mind than other areas that were flooded. With that,regarding the CSO project,I understand the EPA allows only a certain number of sewage deposits into the river within a certain amount of time. Acknowledging there are many years remaining until the program is completed,I anticipate additional times of sewer backup regardless of the river height.Are there any additional short-term programs in which the City can invest until the CSO program is completed? We just saw this presentation where millions of dollars are going to all these projects. Kim Bowman,314 Marquette Avenue,stated,I think the City should have shutdown. I had a really hard time to get back into my neighborhood. The City should have sent out a notice to homeowners to use less water, like not using showers and washing machines as much to help mitigate the flooding issues. There was no notice and that would have been helpful. With no further business, Committee Chair Dr. Varner adjourned the Utilities Committee meeting at 6:44 p.m. Respectfully Submitted, ✓ �d David Varn er, Committee Chair 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 J TTD 574.235.5567 I www.southbendin.gov 9 I