What we face
Please understand what is happening here at City Hall the current administration tries to leave office and leave the incoming office holders holding the bag. The simply process in getting a sewer expansion approved is in multiple steps.
One of the first steps in that process is applying for a NPDES permit. Currently that was awarded to Pickerington earlier this year. That permit allowed Pickerington to increase its sewer capacity from 1.8 MGD up 3.5 MGD.
What Pickerington didn?’t tell anyone was how they were financing this project and that the current effective rate of sewer flow is actually 1.2 MGD. The city has an older treatment building that is off line because it didn?’t meet the newer EPA standards. So what Pickerington is planning to do now is to increase their effective flow from 1.2 MGD to 3.5 MGD (Million Gallons Day). Thus effectively tripling the size of the sewer plant capacity and that would service up to 7666 new homes (300 gallons per household per day divided into 2.3 million gallon per day increase).
Much of this current plant expansion may very well overlap existing sewer services already provided out in the township by Fairfield Utilities. This is supposed to be controlled by an Ohio EPA plan referred to as the 208 plan. The duplication of services was not an issue early this year because the Ohio EPA thought that Pickerington was using local funds. However after getting the NPDES permit they then applied for this loan from the Ohio EPA and now this Ohio EPA 208 plan should play a new role in Pickerington?’s service areas. The Ohio EPA appears to be ignoring, their own, rules right now.
The NPDES permit is now under appeal by Canal Winchester. This case will not be settled until after the first of 2004. So if the Ohio EPA issues a final ?“Permit to install?” (PTI) say in December 2003 and the DEFA loan is approved and the plant is expanded. The city could be sitting on a white elephant of a sewer plant if the court rules in favor of Canal Winchester and the Pickerington NPDES permit is denied then that would have Pickerington utilities users paying for a $14 Million sewer plant expansion witch only has a capacity of 1.8 MGD (current approved flow rate).
I was told earlier this year that this plant expansion was to be paid off by future tap fee sales from new homes. I now find out that they are planning of increasing our sewer rates to pay this loan off. Here again the current sewer users subsidizing the future residents and the residential developers.
Lisa Ross, has made some great comments to the Ohio EPA. If you want to help then please write the Ohio EPA provided in the first posting of this discussion. From the new government that was elected last Tuesday you must ask the Ohio EPA to delay the final PTI for at least six months to give us time to study our options.
Please understand what is happening here at City Hall the current administration tries to leave office and leave the incoming office holders holding the bag. The simply process in getting a sewer expansion approved is in multiple steps.
One of the first steps in that process is applying for a NPDES permit. Currently that was awarded to Pickerington earlier this year. That permit allowed Pickerington to increase its sewer capacity from 1.8 MGD up 3.5 MGD.
What Pickerington didn?’t tell anyone was how they were financing this project and that the current effective rate of sewer flow is actually 1.2 MGD. The city has an older treatment building that is off line because it didn?’t meet the newer EPA standards. So what Pickerington is planning to do now is to increase their effective flow from 1.2 MGD to 3.5 MGD (Million Gallons Day). Thus effectively tripling the size of the sewer plant capacity and that would service up to 7666 new homes (300 gallons per household per day divided into 2.3 million gallon per day increase).
Much of this current plant expansion may very well overlap existing sewer services already provided out in the township by Fairfield Utilities. This is supposed to be controlled by an Ohio EPA plan referred to as the 208 plan. The duplication of services was not an issue early this year because the Ohio EPA thought that Pickerington was using local funds. However after getting the NPDES permit they then applied for this loan from the Ohio EPA and now this Ohio EPA 208 plan should play a new role in Pickerington?’s service areas. The Ohio EPA appears to be ignoring, their own, rules right now.
The NPDES permit is now under appeal by Canal Winchester. This case will not be settled until after the first of 2004. So if the Ohio EPA issues a final ?“Permit to install?” (PTI) say in December 2003 and the DEFA loan is approved and the plant is expanded. The city could be sitting on a white elephant of a sewer plant if the court rules in favor of Canal Winchester and the Pickerington NPDES permit is denied then that would have Pickerington utilities users paying for a $14 Million sewer plant expansion witch only has a capacity of 1.8 MGD (current approved flow rate).
I was told earlier this year that this plant expansion was to be paid off by future tap fee sales from new homes. I now find out that they are planning of increasing our sewer rates to pay this loan off. Here again the current sewer users subsidizing the future residents and the residential developers.
Lisa Ross, has made some great comments to the Ohio EPA. If you want to help then please write the Ohio EPA provided in the first posting of this discussion. From the new government that was elected last Tuesday you must ask the Ohio EPA to delay the final PTI for at least six months to give us time to study our options.
