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CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK
<br /> twofold. One (1) is that it won't work how we expect it to work, and two (2) is that it is too
<br /> expensive. For example, the cost is $713 million on top of what we've previously spent. That is
<br /> $713 million cash that it would cost,but when you have to go out and raise that money, you have
<br /> to pay for that money as well. That is one (1) thing if you are New York City and you had that
<br /> kind of scale you could draw from, but if you look at numbers from South Bend, the household
<br /> income, per capita income, and the number of households with an income of less than $20,000,
<br /> that just emphasizes the sheer affordability concern here. That was our motivation when we
<br /> completed Phase One(I),to say well,rather than just going straight into Phase Two (II), let's look
<br /> at an alternative way we can do Phase Two (II). It's not all bad news, we've had some success in
<br /> the reimagining of this plan over the last while, and the negotiations are going well.
<br /> Mr. Fahey presented a graphic of a few of the issues with the system now. He stated, We realized
<br /> afterwards that some of the tanks were too big or too small. Most were too big with the wrong
<br /> locations, challenges in relation to doing some of the projects where we were told we were going
<br /> to do those projects. All compounding on top of the fact that we had an unaffordable plan. Even if
<br /> we were given a federal grant for a billion dollars to do this plan, this would not be the right plan
<br /> to do.
<br /> He continued, It is not all bad news. Before our time, the City had the foresight to do work in
<br /> relation to the CSO system. One (1) success in that is that they gathered a lot of data, starting in
<br /> the late 2000's. It didn't seem like it was going to be the most significant impact of the plan. It
<br /> seems like the real time control, which was the next phase that happened in 2010 was going to be
<br /> more impactful. In hindsight, having ten (10) years of data was the real cornerstone that we were
<br /> able to base the new plan on. So far, Phase One (I) has been fairly minimal, so there is success
<br /> here, and the success has been a reduction of CSO volume of 2 billion gallons per year down to
<br /> about a quarter of that. We're sustaining that each year. The variability in rainfall, and the
<br /> consistent trends in the lower numbers, if you look at 2008, there were over 2 billion gallons and
<br /> forty-eight(48) inches, whereas in 2016 you had almost ten(10) inches more but we had so much
<br /> less CSO volume. That is what is unique about South Bend. Other communities don't have this
<br /> data. As we're negotiating this plan, we are able to say to the regulators that you can also bring
<br /> what we've done to other communities and it can be beneficial to the other communities and it
<br /> would make you look good as well. Referring to the presentation, he stated, Real Time Control,
<br /> between 2011 and 2012 is where we were able to get more specific, not just collecting data but
<br /> controlling what was happening. I know some of you have heard some of these points before, but
<br /> with the Long-Term Control Plan, these plans are sustained issues, they're at least twenty (20)
<br /> years long, and they have to be planned out in a way that we use models to work on the best plan,
<br /> and how the best plan should be formed. Basically, you're making assumptions as to how much
<br /> rainfall you're going to have, how much of it is going to go into the ground, and how much is
<br /> going into the sewer system.The population of your City will affect what future developments you
<br /> might have. How much inflow you might have from your ground water to your sewer system or
<br /> the other way, so trying to work out how much of it will make its way into the river and how much
<br /> will make its way to the treatment plant, and then there are variabilities there as well. The height,
<br /> so you know exactly how much will overflow and the circumference of your line, the line that
<br /> connects different parts of the sewer system. So with a design like that, it becomes normal that
<br /> when there is uncertainty, people add a bit of contingency to their plans. That compounds safety
<br /> concerns. We only knew what we knew because we had ten(10)years' worth of data to say what's
<br /> really happening out there, rather than just making assumptions.
<br /> EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT
<br /> 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
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