City seeks extension from EPA on wastewater treatment plant completion

Totals are still pending on the amount of damage recent floodwaters caused to the under-construction Hillsboro Wastewater Treatment Plant. Preliminary estimates indicate it could be thousands of dollars to repair, and has caused the city to seek an extension regarding the construction completion date from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.

The utilities committee met Thursday evening to discuss the damage to the plant, located within Liberty Park, during floods caused May 2-May 3. 

Plant supervisor Brandon Leeth reported the incidents that occurred that evening, how the city was planning on fixing the current problem and issues in the future.

Leeth estimated that 20 million gallons of water went through the plant within a 24-hour period. The plant typically handles 1.5 million gallons a day and is designed to handle up to 7 million gallons. 

The renovations to the plant were in accordance with requirements from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, "which could handle an 18-year, 24-hour rain. Well, we received three inches of rain in four hours." 

When he received an indication there was a problem with the system during the rains last week, he first inspected the south lift station on Muntz Street. He then tried to make it to the plant at Liberty Park, located on North High Street, but a portion of US 62 was under water. He was able to make it to Diamond Drive via Self Road to US 62. 

"I had to drive through about a foot of water, but I was able to make it to Liberty," Leeth said. "I made it about a hundred yards, and the water was going across the roads."

When he eventually made it to the plant, Leeth said they'd had "a PLC (programmable logic controller) failure. It was completely shut down. But the PLC was fine, the room was fine. But water had been in other areas. The flow came in so fast that it jumped our channels and our gates." 

Later that week, when he got someone to come in to take a look at the pumps, Leeth said he was told that it was "as bad as it can be." 

To repair, it could be approximately $25,000, he said. However, because the plant is new, they want all the components to be new and last for years to come. There are also concerns regarding corrosion and the warranty.

"If the pumps can't be warrantied, then we don't want it back," he said. 

There was additional damage to multiple other components throughout the plant, and they are still waiting on a total estimate of damages. Until all the damages are known, they will not be able to determine if it will all be covered by insurance. 

The are utilizing different pump systems now to keep the plant functioning. However, there are no screens on these pumps "and if a 2x4 comes flowing through, we're going to have some problems." 

Because some of the component parts that need replaced are so expensive, they are not always in stock. Leeth said the city may have to wait two to three weeks to get parts, and the pumps could be down two to three months.

The city is now writing to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to ask for an extension on "the process ready date" for the plant's completion, which currently is June 1, 2012. 

"There is no possible way we're going to be able to meet that," Leeth said. "They've really been on our tails (regarding completing the plant). I'm afraid they're going to say, 'We gave you 27 months to do this.' But we've had three floods during those 27 months." 

Should something similar happen in the future, Leeth said the fix that he has come up with is "to put a sensor in the channel. We can't shut it completely down, but if there is too much coming in, we can tell the controls to shut the gates. It won't shut it down, but it will regulate it."

The solution is something EPA representatives seem OK with, he said. 

"We can't afford to go through this every time it floods," Leeth said. "It's going to be expensive. But if we look at spending $200,000 to $300,000 to keep fixing flood damage, but there is a fix that's $50,000 to $75,000, it's a no-brainer." 

The sensor will require a change order at the plant, and he has contacted the city's construction company for the project, CH2M-Hill. 

"Flow is back to normal today," Leeth said. "The next time it rains, it will be back up. So let's hope it doesn't rain."  

Looking to the future and attempting to prevent what happened would be difficult, and it is also not fiscally feasible to build a plant that would handle 20 million gallons a day. 

The current renovations to the plan costs an estimated $17 million, with some costs covered through multiple grants, and with a 0-percent interest loan. A plant that would handle 20 million gallons "would cost at least $30 million," Leeth said. "Hillsboro is not normally a 20 million gallons a day city.

"But, Hillsboro has an inflow and infiltration problem (I&I)," Leeth said. "Randy Barr (of Hillsboro's water maintenance department) has been working and doing a great job. It can't be fixed in a day, or in a year. But the pipes have got to be fixed."

Finance committee chairperson Dave Shoemaker thanked Leeth for the report and praised the wastewater treatment plant crew for the work they do. 

"It's not been the easiest of times, and I really have high esteem for you guys," Shoemaker said. 

Leeth said, "In these tough times, that means a lot." 

In other business, the committee heard an extensive report from deputy law director Laura Curliss and Mona Parker from the utilities department regarding updates to the city's water utilities ordinance. 

Curliss and Parker have worked together to update the ordinance, remove redundancies and to make language and policies more clear. 

"It's a pretty refined product," Curliss said of the 19-page document. 

Parker said, "Sometimes when there's a disagreement customers will want to see it, but when we'd read it in the ordinance book it wasn't clear. This will clear up a lot of that, which is good." 

The proposed revisions will be presented to a full council during their meeting Monday evening. Council will also consider the creation of a management position within the utilizes department, as well as a five-year plan from the Ross, Pickaway, Highland, Fayette Solid Waste Management District.