Lakeshore area near Mosquito hooks up to sewer system

The county health commissioner made the Lakeshore neighborhood a top priority in 2003.

By Ed Runyan

WARREN — The Lakeshore neighborhood of Bazetta Township, which has received unwanted state and local focus for years because its failed septic systems dumped sewage into Mosquito Lake, finally has a working sewer system.

Since April, the owners of the 61 homes on Lakeshore and Westlake drives on the southwestern corner of the lake have been tying into the system built by the Trumbull County Sanitary Engineering Department.

Most of the homes are now using the system, said Rex Fee, sanitary engineering executive director.

The only remaining job, Fee said, is for homeowners to begin paying for the $679,406 project, a part of which was upgrading a “package” treatment plant at the end of Sterling Drive that also serves the campground at Mosquito Lake State Park.

Fee said the new sewer system is eliminating somewhere around 20,000 gallons of sewage per day from entering the lake, which is likely to result in improvements in the lake water and Lakeshore neighborhood.

Sewage from the failed septic systems was being carried in pipes into the lake, which is a top recreation spot and the source for Warren’s water system.

“I think it’s too soon to do the testing [of Mosquito Lake], but once they have all connected [to the sewer system], we should be able to see improvement in that area,” Dr. James Enyeart, county health commissioner, said Wednesday, noting that at various times over the years, sewage could be seen on the ground near the water’s edge and “rolling” into the lake.

Today, county commissioners are expected to approve the final assessment costs of $72.34 per front-foot and a service connection of $1,500 per home for Lakeshore.

The average cost per home is $11,138, which homeowners will pay outright or through a monthly charge on their water and sewer bill.

Fee said the per-foot cost and service connection costs compare favorably with the estimates home- owners were given at the time of the public hearing on the project. The estimates were $86.71 per front foot and $2,236 for a service connection.

In 2007, county commissioners signed a consent agreement to build sewers in the Lakeshore neighborhood and nine other areas by 2020 to settle a lawsuit filed against the county by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency in 2002.

Thomas P. Behlen, assistant attorney general, said the reason the state sued Trumbull County was that the county health department had not done a good job up to that point in protecting the environment from waste water coming from septic systems.

The Lakeshore neighborhood became the target of criticism from the Trumbull County Health Department and Dr. Enyeart, who pointed out in 2003 that sewage from the neighborhood was flowing into the lake because the septic systems were no longer working correctly.

At the time, he said eliminating sewage from the Lakeshore neighborhood was a top priority for him.

“The Ohio Department of Health raised awareness with me [about problems with septic systems], and we brought it to the county commissioners in 2003. Here it is 2009, and it looks like we were successful,” Dr. Enyeart said Wednesday.

runyan@vindy.com