Jeffersonville officials on Thursday discussed $87 million in projects aimed at controlling combined sewer overflows, commonly called CSOs.
The projects, collectively referred to as the CSO long-term control plan, is the result of legal negotiations between the city and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The agency has recently fined the city for violating the U.S. Clean Water Act in relation to the overflow problems.
CSOs occur during heavy rains and snow melts. The water from those events drain into the combined sewer system, washing untreated sewage into the waterways.
Under the long-term control plan, the city plans to install a big, new pipe along Market Street — called an intercepter — to catch all the CSO water. It would then be pumped into a 12-foot-wide, near-surface storage tunnel, moved back to a pump station on Tenth Street and then onto the sewer treatment plant.
That and other improvements contained in the plan would take about 15 years to implement, according to Mark Sneve, engineer with Strand Associates, Inc., who led the meeting.
The Jeffersonville City Council recently voted to approved a nearly 200 percent increase in sewer rates — raising the average monthly bill from $24 per month to around $73 per month — in order to pay for this another sewer upgrades.
The longterm control plan would reduce CSOs into the Ohio River from about 45 per year to about one per year, Sneve said. About 97 percent of CSO outfall would be treated once the plan is implemented, in 2025, as opposed to 60 percent today.
Thursday’s was the last of five public input sessions on the plan.
The plan is available for review until March 3 at Jeffersonville City Hall, 500 Quartermaster Court. Residents can also read it at the Wastewater Treatment Plant, 1420 Pennsylvania Avenue or the Jeffersonville Township Public Library, 211 Court Avenue.
Those who do read it and want to comment can contact Storm Water Director Len Ashack at lashack@cityofjeff.net or at 812-285-6451 with comments. The Jeffersonville Sanitary Sewer Board is expected to formally adopt the plan in April.
Clark County
$87 million in sewer fixes considered
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