11-11-13 Common Council Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING NOVEMBER 11, 2013 consent decree and actually adjust the plan. This slide outlines those three options to potential change the plan. The first option is a potential extension of the schedule of the plan. The plan has a 20 year implementation; there is an opportunity to potentially extend that schedule up to five years. There are a couple of constraints that have to happen before you can apply for an extension. So the extension can be applied for after May, 2017; a total of almost$99 million dollars needs to be spent on the plan already and financial conditions have to get worse and there's an indicator a residential indicator that looks at the cost of the plan in comparison to median household income. Currently, that residential indicator is at 2.41% and would have to increase by 0.2%, so financial conditions would have to get worse. The second way to potentially change the plan in a consent decree is changing either the size or configuration of the facilities in the plan. There are two opportunities before December 31, 2020 to do that. Before we would apply for a change in the technical plan we would have to implement green design or CSOnet project improve that those project reduce the flow to these new facilities so that we can reduce the size of these new facilities; if we can reduce the size of these facilities up to a maximum of 40%. In order to even apply for this you have to plan the green infrastructure CSO net design it, construct it and then have a period of where you monitor the performance of it and then put together a case to make the modification. Those two options are options that are built into the consent decree so you would have to work and get approval from the parties that signed the consent decree which are the Department of Justice, EPA and IDEM. This third and last option is basically requesting that the entire consent decree be reopened. This would have to go through a federal court or a judge to change the plan. So there aren't any restrictions it's just going back and trying to open up the consent decree or the contract. Basically, what we know from experience is that you have to prove that your new plan is better for the environment than your old plan and you have to show good faith in implementing the plan that you have. So those are the three ways. Councilmember Oliver Davis: In you experience in the State of Indiana any cities who's under these consent decrees or any like this or any kind of decree, have they filed for any type of extension, under any other categories and what has been their success rate in being able to file for any of these things? Becky Schaefer: Sure, so for Option#1 extending the schedule, Elkhart has the same language in their consent decree but they have not extended the schedule, they have not yet applied for that extension. South Bend is the only community that I am aware of that has option#2 or has the flexibility to change tank sizes or configurations. A lot of people think that clause is very attractive in their consent decree. For Option#3 re-opening the consent decree, yes, I am aware of one other community that has done that and it took several years but it was successful. The reason it was successful was that they showed more environmental benefit facts. Councilmember Oliver Davis: On your third issue the city that was successful are there any kind of best practices that they learned in that kind of a case that we could adapt in our case that we could look at re-opening it based on some of the lessons that they learned on how to re-open theirs in order to meet the guidelines to get everything accomplished which would in effect possible reduce some of the cost. Becky Schaefer: Yes, I think that the#1 lesson learned was that EPA looks at the environmental benefit and just applying for the cost reduction is not going be a factor to them. Councilmember Oliver Davis; I understand that, are there any written documents that could be forwarded from that? Do you know what city that was? Becky Schaefer: Indianapolis. Councilmember Oliver Davis: Is there any information that we can have, some key things that we can look at to add to ours? Becky Schaefer: I am not aware of something that summarizes that. I am sure it could be pulled together. Councilmember Dr. David Varner: It's on their website, the City of Indianapolis.