Public meet’s Moore’s plan: Residents get opportunity to ask questions, get answers

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A park with a two-acre pond is part of Moore’s plan to help ease CSOs in downtown.

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February 2, 2012

By DAVID A. MANN David.Mann@newsandtribune.com The News and Tribune Thu Feb 02, 2012, 12:29 AM EST

JEFFERSONVILLE — Residents gathered Wednesday night for a question and answer session to address Jeffersonville’s combined sewer overflow problem.

The forum came about a week after Jeffersonville Mayor Mike Moore announced construction of new pipes beneath Market and Mulberry streets to catch combined sewer overflows that go into the Ohio River. The plan would also include a new downtown park with a two-acre lake to ease flooding.

Moore believes the $30.8 million piping will bring Jeffersonville into compliance with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s mandate to eliminate sewer overflows. Those overflows occur when heavy rainfall washes untreated sewage into area waterways, therefore violating the federal Clean Water Act.

Moore’s predecessor, Tom Galligan, had proposed a $65 million canal through downtown to solve the overflow problem and ease flooding. However, the big pipe under Market Street has been in the city’s plan since the beginning as well. Moore is simply making that portion of the project his first priority because he says it gets at the crux of the CSO problem.

“The canal did not address the EPA issue,” Moore said. “A lot of us were led to believe the EPA is making us do [the canal] …. that is not true.”

Moore bills the new plan as a more thrifty option, noting it would not necessitate new taxes or additional sewer rate increases beyond those already approved in 2009.

The sewer rate increases approved by the Jeffersonville City Council in 2009 will continue to be phased in. The latest phase of the increase took the average bill to around $55 starting in 2012. Additional increases planned in 2013, 2014 and 2015 will take the average bill to about $73 even without the canal.

BIG QUESTIONS

The canal was billed as something that would have sparked economic development, how does the new plan do so?

“That Falls Landing Park [which would surround the two acre lake] is going to be a real draw,” Moore said.

Further, the mayor said that while he believes it’s the city’s role to provide services, infrastructure and roads, he didn’t believe it was the city’s role to spend $65 million on something that could prompt development.

The canal plans included development at Colston Park. What happens to the park under the new plan?

Adult league softball games will be played at Colston Park this spring, Moore said.

An archeological dig is under way to survey the boundaries of an abandoned cemetery there now. If it’s confirmed that a cemetery is beneath the park, Corporation Counsel Tom Lowe said, the city would have to take appropriate steps to relocate graves there before anything is built on the land.

Moore believes a developer will eventually be interested in the property.

The canal would have been a 4,440-foot-long, 40-foot-wide open channel – why is the lake only 2 acres?

Moore said engineers on the project – including Indianapolis-based United Consulting and Clarksville-based Jacobi, Toombs and Lanz determined the size of the lake based on average annual rainfall.

Can the lake handle an event on the order of the historic Aug. 2009, six inches per hour storm?

“When rain storms hit like that – expect problems,” Moore said. “Let’s be realistic here. I don’t have all the answers but I also don’t have all the money in the world to solve all the problems.”

What becomes of the lake during extended dry weather periods?

It’s possible that it would dry up, said engineer Jorge Lanz. However, it’s also possible that a level could be maintained by tapping into a groundwater source.

What is the timetable on the projects?

Moore said Fall’s Landing Park will start once city construction crews are finished with Vissing Park — where new softball fields are being installed — some time toward the end of this year.

The big Market Street pipe project will be completed within about three years.

HOW IT WORKS

The big pipe will catch CSOs on Market Street and they will be pumped up Mulberry — using the land the city has acquired for the canal project — to the 10th Street pump station. The pump station moves water to the downtown sewer treatment plant. Treated water from the plant goes into Mill Creek.

Wastewater Department Director Len Ashack said if that project doesn’t quell the sewer overflows enough to meet the EPA requirements, then the city could move on to the conveyance channel portion of the project — also known as the canal or another drainage project.

In 2011, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management accepted a long-term control plan developed by the city to deal with storm water issues.

The lake serves purely a storm water or flooding function — it doesn’t hold any sewer overflows.

But does it go far enough?

“I’m not convinced the pond will solve the flooding problem,” said Jill Schimpff, owner of Schimpff’s Confectionary on Spring Street.

E. Wayne Carter, a former city councilman, said he was glad to see Moore sharing ideas but also questioned the plan’s effectiveness.

“What kind of capacity do those ponds have,” he said. “They can only go so deep. We’ve not had a normal rainfall since when?”

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