12/30/2011 EPA, City sign consent decree

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But South Bend also has a benefit not enjoyed by other communities. As the world's first city to deploy a system to monitor and control CSOs with technology, South Bend will use wireless sensors, computers and smart valves to help control wet weather flow in its existing system and save a projected $120 million in avoided capital costs. CSOnet was developed in conjunction with entrepreneurs at South Bend-based EmNet LLC, based on research conducted at the University of Notre Dame and Purdue University. The consent decree provides the latitude for the City of South Bend to reduce the aggregate size and number of tanks and related mandated infrastructure (saving South Bend rate payers money while accomplishing environmental stewardship objectives) based on the proven success of solutions resulting from the use of green infrastructure or from the implementation of CSOnet technology. Green infrastructure measures are the range of storm-water control measures that use plant and soil systems, permeable pavement or storm-water management to harvest,reuse, store, infiltrate and other means to reduce CSOs and the volume of wet weather requiring storage and treatment(again saving South Bend ratepayers money while accomplishing environmental stewardship objectives). "For a $6 million investment in CSOnet, we expect to be able to improve system performance 25 percent to use existing assets to achieve the same level of benefit as conventional solutions costing an estimated $120 million in avoided storage and conveyance future investment," said Public Works Director Gary Gilot. "This is giving us real-time monitoring and control to maximize the storage and conveyance capacity of our sewer system in the same way that engineers limit traffic entering freeways to control congestion." After pilot studies, CSOnet was launched in 2008 when South Bend deployed 110 wireless sensors underneath"smart" manhole covers citywide. Through an embedded radio mesh network,these small computers enable crews to monitor the depth and flow of storm water and sewage in the 500-mile sewer network. At each monitoring point, data from sensors is transmitted by radio to a nearby gateway, which uploads the data to a secure web site. City officials can access the data 24/7 at any point in South Bend's 13,100-acre combined-sewer system or at its 36 CSO outfall points. In addition to the mandated portions of the consent decree, the City of South Bend will spend $150,000 to help restore aquatic habitat in Bowman Creek, one of the most environmentally impaired tributaries in the St. Joseph River watershed. The project is a supplemental environmental project undertaken not as part of its combined sewer overflow long-term control plan, but as a locally proposed project benefiting the local environment in lieu of paying higher fines and penalties to EPA for past combined sewage overflows. Bowman Creek enters South Bend near the AM General test track along West Chippewa Avenue before winding its way for two miles through southeast South Bend. The creek passes landmarks like Riley High School and the Studebaker Golf Course mostly underground or within enclosed storm sewer pipes until it drains into the St. Joseph River across from the Farmers Market. "Bowman Creek runs dry during droughts, floods during rainstorms, is little valued and often serves as a dump, despite fencing that seeks to control dumping. It is one of the most impaired