5 years, 6 months ago by Scott Hardy
Revised plan to be implemented over 20 years with no additional rate hikes
The City of Quincy has received approval for its nearly $26 million plan to comply with a Federal mandate to keep storm and sewer runoffs separated.
In a Wednesday statement, the City says that in late August, the US Environmental Protection Agency accepted a revised Long Term Control Plan from the city regarding how it would deal with combined sewer overflows. A CSO happens when during a storm, the capacity of a diversion sewer is exceeded. That's when excess sewage can then be discharged directly into the Mississippi River. The city originally submitted a plan in 2013, but the EPA hadn't acted on it for over three years. The city then revised its' plan and submitted it to the Illinois EPA in August 2017. That revised plan relies on improvements to the existing CSO diversion structures to divert additional flows to the City's sewage treatment plant. It will also utilize large-diameter combined sewers as temporary storage during smaller storms. The city says that work on the $25.6 million revised plan will start in the near future, and will be completed in several phases over the next 20 years. They add that the revised plan will save the city an estimated $33 million over the original plan.
The increase in water and sewer rates implemented in May is expected to cover the cost of implementing the LTCP, without any additional rate hikes.
