City's IDEM compliance to take longer than planned

With the original deadline on an agreed order to finish the City of Greencastle water plant project in an extremely ambitious 18-month timetable about to expire, it is being extended six months, the Greencastle Board of Public Works and Safety learned Monday afternoon.

City officials met with representatives from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) last month in Indianapolis, Mayor Sue Murray said, and received assurances the deadline could be "pushed back."

While city officials are awaiting official notification from IDEM, it appears that the agreed to order to complete the water project by the end of April 2015 will be extended until October.

The original order was issued Oct. 7, 2013, giving the city 18 months to comply with significant changes to its water plant and well system.

Meanwhile, Greencastle Water and Wastewater Supt. Rob Lovell updated the board on the compliance effort being funded through the State Revolving Loan Fund (SRF) at a total project cost of $2,675,500, which is the reason behind an increase in water rates implemented late last year.

"We'll be pouring concrete for the addition to the water plant yet this week or next," Lovell told Mayor Murray and board members Trudy Selvia and Thom Morris.

"We're making a lot of progress," Lovell said with the target for completion now extended six months.

What has driven all that is essentially that IDEM has been empowered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to make determinations about whether municipal systems that utilize a groundwater source are under direct influence of surface water.

An assessment of the Greencastle system showed higher-than-normal groundwater temperatures reportedly due to the influence of surface water. While normal groundwater temperature is about 55 degrees (plus or minus two or three degrees), the report documents a water temperature differential of about 14 degrees.

Also contributing to the water issue is that Greencastle's population has now surpassed the 10,000 mark, putting the utility under new, stricter guidelines which mandate the need for a WT-5 level of operation with a licensed operator present during all hours of water production.

Major cost elements of the project include: Clear well tank and transfer pumps, $1,312,000; pre-chlorination system, $187,000; SCADA control system, $150,000; well rehabilitation, $125,000; and filter media replacement, $105,000.

Total probable construction cost has been listed at $1,979,500 with a contingency recommendation of $305,000 and non-construction costs (land acquisition, engineering fees, other professional services) of $391,000.

Meanwhile, the Board of Works immersed itself in other business at the 30-minute meeting at City Hall (conducted two days early to accommodate board members' schedules this month), including two more requests for sewage adjustments relative to water leaks on private property.

The board granted a $1,458 sewage bill adjustment for Adam Cohen, 11 Park St. He will still pay a water bill of $730 for 192,000 gallons of water that was lost because of a leak while Cohen, president of the City Council, was out of town.

The Board of Works has a policy of granting a one-time sewage bill adjustment due to a water leak when the lost water does not enter the sanitary sewer system and thus does not necessitate treatment.

Also receiving a sewage bill adjustment Monday was Bob Lowe, 617 Brentfield Lane, who had a problem caused by a valve that was apparently installed improperly and leaked even though Lowe had his water shut off during January and February, causing sewage bills of $75.59 and $86.13. Those were each reduced to the minimum monthly bill of $39.74.

Those adjustments, however, pale in comparison to the nearly $10,000 sewage adjustment approved in March for Heartland Automotive, which suffered a water main break sometime during the holidays, resulting in a February bill of $14,415.25, a spokesman explained. Heartland received a $9,997.29 sewage bill adjustment.

The Heartland sewer bill was reduced to its monthly average, once again because the lost water was not treated at the wastewater plant. The company still paid its full water bill for the period.