Unique approach at Huntingburg Wastewater Plant saves city money
On Friday, Huntingburg Mayor Denny Spinner announced a change in the city’s Wastewater Plant operating permit that could save the city up to $17 million dollars.
The city has worked on problems with rain water infiltration and inflow for several years. This excess water creates problems for the Wastewater Plant in wet weather. During those times the amount of water flowing to the plant can be 10 to 15 times more than their treatment capacity.
The city’s mandatory sewer main inspection program and upgrades to the system have alleviated some of the excess water problems. The excess water that does make it into the plant is diverted to excess flow lagoons until it can be treated at a later time. Those two programs have kept the plant operating within the constraints of its permit.
Since 1996, when the wastewater facility update was completed, they have operated under an interlocutory agreement with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM). This agreement allowed the facility to continue to store excess water from wet weather in lagoons but IDEM has been pushing for the plant to be updated to handle the increased capacity.
Last week the city received a verbal notification from IDEM that the lagoons would now be included in their operating permit. This approval was allowed due to the Wastewater Plant’s historical success with the system.
According to Waste Water Superintendent Mike Kemp the permit was allowed due to the facility’s record of compliance using this overflow system over the past 20 years. “IDEM is basically recognizing we have been making this work for the past 20 years and now they are allowing it on our permit,” Kemp said. “It could have been bad, they could have made us do the $17 million in upgrades, but we were able to show them through the history of the plant that it has worked.”
According to Kemp, no other waste water facility in the Indiana uses this approach to deal with excessive infiltration and inflow.
On another note, the Huntingburg Parks Department has been using the effluent from the Wastewater Plant to water trees. This water conservation effort is labor intensive but, with the current voluntary water conservation efforts, it is necessary to save some newly planted trees at the parks.
