NEW ALBANY —
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved a plan to combat sewer overflows in New Albany that could lead to the end of federal oversight of the utility, city officials announced Thursday.
New Albany has been held to an EPA consent decree since 1992 due to sanitary sewer overflows, or SSOs, which are a violation of the federal Clean Water Act.
The city spent about $50 million from 2003 to 2010 battling SSOs, yet there were still more than 100 overflows recorded from 2007 to 2009.
For more than a year, the city has worked with the EPA on an amended Capacity Assurance Plan, or CAP. The plan calls for multiple infrastructure projects to shore up sewer lines that could end overflows in the system.
New Albany Sewer Board Attorney Greg Fifer said Thursday the city’s proposal has been accepted by the EPA.
“This will be the blueprint for ending EPA oversight in New Albany,” said Fifer of the amended CAP.
The path to having the consent decree lifted starts with a re-lining project that will encompass areas near Silver Street and Slate Run Road. The first phase of work will also include upgrades to sewer taps.
Once that project has been completed — which sewer officials said should take about a year — the EPA has stipulated the city will have three additional years to complete the remainder of the CAP upgrades.
After all the CAP projects have been finished, the city will have a year demonstration period to show the improvements have eliminated SSOs before the EPA would lift the consent decree.
The CAP projects are being footed through a $7.4 million Indiana State Revolving Loan Fund advance. The loan was garnered by the city last year as part of a plan that included a sewer rate increase.
Without the loan, the city would have been unable to afford the projects which could end the EPA consent decree, sewer board vice chairman Gary Brinkworth said.
“The SRF money definitely put us over the hump as far as getting our projects done,” he said.
In turn, the upgrades to sewer infrastructure should lead to more revenue for the utility.
When a large development such as a subdivision is constructed, sewer credits must be awarded to match the gallons of usage the new establishment displaces to the wastewater treatment plant.
Due to concerns over capacity, the EPA limited the number of sewer credits available in some areas of New Albany which hampered the start of construction for several developments especially along Grant Line Road.
But in conjunction with the approval of the amended CAP, the EPA has allowed credits to be issued for sizable projects including Grant Line Industrial Park West and the Stonecrest housing development adjacent to Grant Line Road.
Stonecrest developers have been waiting for more than five years for sewer credits, and they have agreed to pay up to $400,000 in upfront tap-in fees.
Work continues on Grant Line West, which, when completed, will provide more property for corporations to locate on as most of New Albany’s industrial parks are near capacity.
“It just helps [with funding] to run the sewer works,” Brinkworth said of the potential tap-in fees at Grant Line West and other developments.
The EPA was unable to provide a response to questions regarding the amended CAP by press time.
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