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Federal team will visit to study city sewer plight
YOUNGSTOWN
A team from the U.S. Government Accountability Office will make a congressionally requested fact-finding visit to Youngstown in September as part of a GAO study of water supply and sewer infrastructure in communities with declining populations, said city Law Director Martin Hume.
Hume said he hopes the team’s visit will trigger federal grants to help the city with the $147 million sanitary-sewer system upgrade it must complete between now and 2033 under its agreement with the U.S. and Ohio environmental protection agencies.
Hume said Friday he wants Congress members “to recognize that this is a national problem and there is a particular need to assist communities like Youngstown that have a limited ability to afford the improvements necessary to comply with existing laws.”
He added, “There is something maybe unfair about placing the burden for the entire system on the citizens of Youngstown alone.”
The GAO study was requested by U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko, a Democrat from New York, the ranking minority member of the Subcommittee on Environment and the Economy of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee.
A group from the nonpartisan GAO’s natural resources and environment team will visit Youngstown and Detroit and some other yet-to-be-determined cities as part of the study, said Chuck Young, GAO’s managing director of public affairs.
“We are reviewing cities with declining populations and how they are managing their water and wastewater infrastructure in the face of declining population and increasing utility rates,” Young explained.
Youngstown’s population has declined from its peak of 168,330 in 1950 to 66,982 in 2010 and a 2014 estimate of 65,062.
The scope and methods for the GAO study are still being determined, and the study report is likely to be issued in summer 2016, Young added.
“I am glad to see the GAO come to the Mahoning Valley to see the effects of our aging infrastructure. Youngstown is one of many communities across the country with a mandate to correct a 100-year-old problem with very little assistance from the federal government,” said U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-13th, of Howland.
“With 36 percent of residents living below the poverty line, passing on the costs to taxpayers is burdensome, but without critical investments from the government, there are no other options for city leaders to complete these projects and clean up our waterways,” he said.
“The federal government needs to be a reliable partner in helping cities meet the needs of their citizens,” Ryan added.
Youngstown’s long-term combined sewer-overflow control plan, which calls for spending the $147 million, calls the project “an unfunded mandate” and says the financial burden for carrying it out will be borne by sewer-user rate increases.
“In light of the recent events in Mill Creek Park and the Mill Creek watershed, I am looking forward to reading the GAO’s important report,” said U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, R-6th, of Marietta, a member of the committee and subcommittee.
GAO will send to Youngstown a team of three of its staff members, which will visit a total of eight to 10 cities while performing the study, said Ben Keeler, a Johnson spokesman.
Hume said he expects the GAO visit here will last more than one day, but the precise visit schedule hasn’t been set.
The $147 million plan calls for $37 million in Youngstown wastewater- treatment plant upgrades, $62 million for a new wet weather treatment facility and $48 million for elimination of combined sewer overflows into Mill Creek Park.
CSO overflows from heavy late June rains were the primary cause of a massive fish kill in the park’s Lake Newport, the Ohio EPA said.
The Mill Creek MetroParks indefinitely closed lakes Newport, Cohasset and Glacier to all recreational use July 10 after the Mahoning County Board of Health measured high E. coli sewage bacteria counts in Lake Newport.
The health board is now testing Mill Creek and Lake Newport for E. coli weekly over a 12-week period.
“Any awareness that the city can make to any federal and state officials to help garner additional funding is a home run for the city,” said John Pierko, an engineer with MS Consultants, which wrote the city’s long-term sewer system improvement plan.
“I hope they see the importance of trying to do something in Mill Creek Park,” said Joseph Catullo, an MS Consultants engineer and former Mahoning County sanitary engineer.
“State and federal dollars should be involved in this type of a project,” Catullo said.