 Seven council members were present for the evening; those who were
absent were Kathy Horn, Jeff Hoinacki and Tom O'Donohue.
The city is required by the Illinois Environmental Protection
Agency to adhere to a federal program for the monitoring of
discharges into public waterways from the sewerage treatment plant.
The program for monitoring of combined sewer overflow, or CSO,
pertains specifically to cities where sewage and storm waters are
collected in one main drain line. Lincoln has several areas where
the sewage and storm waters are collected together, which is not
uncommon in older cities.
A CSO event may occur during heavy rainfalls when the inflow of
the combined wastewater exceeds the capacity of the sewer system and
the treatment facility. When that happens, sewage overflow is
directed to another location, where it is held for treatment.
According to Kitzmiller, the city experiences an average of 20 CSO
events a year.
CSO monitoring will determine whether or not the overflow plan
designed by the city is effectively containing excess waste and
preventing polluted water from entering public waterways.
In 2008 the city was required to put together a monitoring
program that would include procedures for testing effluents and
submit it to the IEPA for approval.
Late last year, the city went ahead and approved the purchase of
the equipment that would be needed to do the sampling and some of
the testing as they waited for the EPA to approve their plan
Tuesday night Tackett said the plan has finally been approved,
and now the city has two years to collect samples from six CSO
events.
During each event, samples will be taken from three locations:
Brainard's Branch near Union Street, the Rubicon Diversion Dam at
the waste treatment plant and downstream from the plant near Salt
Creek bridge.
The procedure for testing will include taking samples every 15
minutes for the first six hours of the overflow. If the event lasts
longer than six hours, then samples will be taken every 12 hours
thereafter.
After the samples are taken, there must be a period of at least
10 days before the next overflow event occurs. This is why the city
has a total of two years to collect from six events.
Kitzmiller and Tackett both said that based on past observations,
there is the potential to do all six collections in a short period
of time, but no guarantee, as it will all depend on the amount of
rainfall that comes into the area and the frequency of overflows.
Tackett said the next immediate step that needs to be taken is
for the providers of the equipment purchased last year to visit
Lincoln and get it all set up for use. Once that is done, the city
will begin taking samples as soon as possible.
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Kitzmiller said it is estimated that by the time they complete
the six CSO events, there will be approximately 2,600 samples taken
and outsourced to a laboratory and another 1,600 samples that will
be tested in-house.
Kitzmiller said the CSO monitoring is actually the second of a
three-step process mandated by the EPA as part of the Clean Water
Act.
In the first step, the city had to establish an overflow plan and
put it into action through the construction of the overflow area.
In the second step, which is called post-construction monitoring,
the sampling of the six overflow events will determine whether or
not the city's system is effective.
Then the third step will be an order from the EPA for changes or
modifications to the system.
Kitzmiller said the EPA will mandate that the city get down to an
average of four CSO events per year. Once they make their mandate,
then the city will have a timeline for upgrading the sewer system,
which will include more steps.
Those steps will include time to develop a new plan and then a
series of stages for the upgrading of the CSO containment and
treatment process. Tackett said the entire process could be spread
out over several years.
For the immediate CSO monitoring program, Kitzmiller said that he
and Tackett were estimating approximately $40,000 would be needed
for the outsourced lab testing, plus money will be expended for
supplies for the in-house testing and some overtime expected during
sample collection.
He added that the estimates are not current, and they will be
getting updated information to the city shortly. He also said some
money has been included in this year's budget for this testing.
Tackett said he hopes that no later than Nov. 15, the city will
be ready for the first CSO event.
[By NILA SMITH]
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Nov. 12, 2009
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City briefs: Racetrack rules, Ameren woes,
sewer upgrades, grants and more
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April 22, 2008
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City ordinances approved: Wind farm
enterprise zone, property maintenance and no-parking area on
Campus View Drive
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