By PAULENE POPARAD

Engineers preliminarily estimated Tuesday it will cost the town of Porter between $4 million and $10 million over a five-year period to upgrade its sanitary-sewer collection system that includes 16 lift stations.

It’s not a matter of whether the town will rebuild the system but rather how fast and to what extent, said town engineer Warren Thiede of Haas & Associates.

That’s because in July, 2007 the town entered into a legally binding agreement with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management over the sewer system’s illegal overflows dating back to 2004. A $775 fine was imposed and IDEM mandated a compliance plan be drafted and carried out in a timely manner.

The plan is the easy part.

Carrying it out will mean big changes for town government and even property owners who will have a stake in cooperating to eliminate what Thiede estimated to be 50 million to 70 million gallons per year of stormwater infiltration and inflow (I/I) that seeps into sewers and needlessly costs Porter almost $200,000 a year to process at the Chesterton sewage treatment plant.

Town Council president Bill Sexton said eliminating the I/I would mean additional savings by not having to purchase more future capacity at the treatment plant.

Thiede said $10 million is a worst-case estimate until Porter installs IDEM-mandated metering and monitoring equipment at key points on the sewer system to gauge flows in both dry weather and after rains. “(Monitoring) is a necessary first step in gaining data to take us to the next step.”

One of the municipal changes anticipated at some point would be creating a separate town Sewer Department with its own supervisor, employees and equipment apart from the Public Works Department that now handles streets, sewers and stormwater.

Thiede emphasized that eventually it will be imperative to have at least two full-time town employees working on the sewer system daily.

Haas engineer John Pavy said communication between town leaders, IDEM, Public Works and the town’s financial, engineering and legal consultants will have to be coordinated by a single person dedicated to handling the massive flow of information being required by IDEM.

It was hoped last night’s meeting would attract Porter residents to inform them of the current situation and what’s ahead, but the public stayed away. Only 17 persons, virtually all of them town officials, employees and consultants, attended.

Represented were members of the Town Council, Redevelopment Commission and Stormwater Management Board. Porter is in the process of researching formation of a Utility Service Board to supervise compliance with IDEM’s agreed order and to be a funding vehicle if needed.

Stormwater Board president Ed Pilarski said a Utility Board makes sense and he recommended doing as other communities have done and combining it with the Stormwater Board, which is implementing the federal MS4 stormwater protection program. Sexton said that can be researched.

Financial consultant Karl Cender cautioned that Stormwater Boards have special taxing powers and consideration should be given before taking away that option.

Show me the money

Regarding the sewer-system upgrade’s hefty pricetag, Cender said Porter’s sewage works will be debt free as of July so a new debt service can be applied to future bonds without changing sewer rates depending on the amount of bonds sold. He also suggested pursuing grants and low-interest loans from the State Revolving Loan Fund.

According to Sexton, “We’ll have to be very creative finding ways to fund all of this (and choose) the most cost-effective for our citizens.”

Thiede said the cost of doing nothing about the agreed order would be high. “So far IDEM has been kind to the town. That doesn’t mean they will always be kind.” He also cited the cost of lost opportunity by virtue of IDEM’s conditional ban on new development with sewer extensions on sewers tributary to the Porter Avenue lift station, a major feeder for Porter’s system.

For new construction “to obtain approval, the (Town) must demonstrate sufficient reduction in inflow/infiltration to assure that the additional wastewater will receive adequate treatment,” according to the agreed order. Thiede said it’s yet to be seen if the town has done enough so far that IDEM will let approved development come in.

Public’s help needed

Getting rid of that I/I is a tall order, said engineers. A Power Point presentation demonstrated deficiencies in the existing sewer system, which in some areas is over 100 years old and would cost $15.5 million to replace today.

Stormwater and run-off from buildings and paved areas need to be better managed, said consultants, because they seep into sanitary sewers. Leaking brick manholes, common in the downtown area, and cracked sewer lines are another problem.

Councilman Jon Granat asked what maintenance has been done on the sewer system over the last 20 years. “Minimal,” replied Brueckheimer, emphasizing every syllable. “They fixed it when it broke.”

Councilman Dave Babcock said it’s important for stormwater to have a place to go. Unlike previous development, new construction requires rear-yard drains and downspouts to be tied into a stormwater --- not sanitary sewer --- system. Sexton said the Stormwater Board needs to have a voice before development is approved, not after.

Pavy said a big part of the compliance plan will be educating the public what’s I/I and how to eliminate it. Said Brueckheimer, “Most of the population wants to do the right thing; they just don’t know how. Public awareness will be huge.”

While penalizing non-compliant property owners isn’t the town’s goal, Porter’s sewer use ordinance has the teeth to enforce elimination of point sources if they’re not voluntarily terminated.

With all the work ahead, “It’s not going to be done overnight,” said Babcock, who noted Porter isn’t the only community in this situation. “We’ve made a lot of progress and have a ways to go but we have to take one step at a time. If we get money --- with the team we have, we’ll have to add some people --- I think we could get the job done.”

When discussing the hiring some day of a utility supervisor and creating a separate department, Sexton observed, “Those are dollars better spent doing productive things than on fines and penalties. (IDEM) won’t go away.”

Posted 3/5/2008