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Officials searching for ways to find money to stop Youngstown's discharge of sewage
YOUNGSTOWN
A group of officials from Youngstown, Mahoning County and Mill Creek MetroParks as well as state legislators and congressional representatives brainstormed ideas on funding to stop the city’s discharge of sewage into the park’s lakes.
The result of the one-hour meeting Thursday is there is no quick solution.
The city has contacted numerous state and federal agencies for funding for its 18-year, $146 million project – including $48 million for an interceptor to keep wastewater from flowing into Mill Creek – to move up the start date, and at best there is some no-interest state money available, said Mayor John A. McNally.
An agreement finalized last December with the federal Environmental Protection Agency for the $146 million in improvements calls for the Mill Creek design work to start July 11, 2020, with “substantial completion” by Dec. 3, 2033.
Charles Shasho, deputy director of the city public-works department, said the no-interest money is only enough for some electric improvements at the wastewater treatment plant.
“You have certain programs that are out there with low- or no-interest loans, and we’re applying for three different ones at the end of August for the electrical improvements, which is needed before we can do anything with Mill Creek,” McNally said.
Mahoning County Probate Court Judge Robert N. Rusu Jr., who appoints Mill Creek board members, said, “You’ve got to do something and get it moving instead of sitting here and doing nothing.”
John Pierko, the MS Consultants Inc. engineer who wrote the city’s combined sewer overflow long-term control plan, said even if the money was available now, the Mill Creek interceptor would take about seven years to finish, and the improvements to the wastewater treatment plant, estimated at $36 million, must come first.
It’s been 25 years since improvements were made to the plant, Pierko said.
Pierko said it would be difficult to make wastewater plant improvements and work on the Mill Creek interceptor at the same time.
If there were no built-in overflows, the sewer system and wastewater treatment plant would be overwhelmed during heavy rains, Pierko said.
The city sewer system has 101 combined sewer overflows, and 15 of them can discharge into Mill Creek or its lakes or a creek tributary.
Pierko also pointed out that the interceptor would stop the city’s sewage overflow from going into Mill Creek’s lakes, which flow into the Mahoning River, but the sewage would still go into the river.
Also, the federal EPA could come back to the city after 2033 and require a second phase of about $150 million to come up with a way to stop sewage overflow into the river, McNally said.
“None of the fixes are inexpensive,” he said. “Down the road, more improvements will need to be made.”
Judge Rusu said, “From an environmental stance, we’re not doing anything except pushing our problem down the river. That’s the sad part. I don’t want to be part of that problem.”
The judge also blamed “our forefathers” for the sewage problem, saying it’s been ignored for 100 years.
“It’s why Volney Rogers left,” Judge Rusu said of the man who founded the park and opposed installing sewer lines in it. “It’s worse than when they first started, and we’re just [compounding] the problem.”
An Ohio EPA emergency responder reported June 29 the massive Lake Newport fish kill was caused by a discharge of more than 100,000 gallons of sewage during the final weekend of June. The OEPA later officially confirmed the city’s sewage discharge due to heavy rains as the primary cause of the fish kill.
Two combined city storm and sanitary sewer overflows discharge into the north end of Lake Newport.
On July 10, the park closed lakes Newport, Cohasset and Glacier indefinitely because of high E. coli sewage bacteria levels in Lake Newport.
Aaron Young, Mill Creek’s executive director, said the city’s combined sewer overflows “are not the only problems” impacting the lakes. “If Youngstown fixes this, it’s still a problem upstream. Even if the city fixes the problems, it won’t solve the E. coli problem” because runoff from upstream also is an issue.
Once a week for the next 12 weeks, the county district board of health will take nine water samples from three locations within Mill Creek Park in an effort to learn more about the water quality of the Mill Creek Watershed and Lake Newport.
According to 21 WFMJ-TV, The Vindicator’s broadcast partner, three samples will be taken from an area south of Lake Newport. Three samples will be drawn from an area near the middle of Lake Newport, and three more samples will be pulled from an area near the lake’s dam, which is to the north. Young said the park will foot the bill for the testing, which is not to exceed $3,000.
In addition to weekly tests, the health department has agreed to test Lake Newport within 48 hours of a rain event to see what, if any, impact Youngstown’s combined sewer overflows are having on the lake.
Ohio Senate Minority Leader Joe Schiavoni of Boardman, D-33rd, said he is considering seeking legislative approval to use state bond money to provide funds for water and sewer projects all over the state.
“It’s realistic because so many cities need this,” he said. “If we had the money, we could move up the plan. It would have to get legislative approval to go on the ballot, get approved, create the fund and have the city get money.”
But that process would take a year, he said. McNally said he thought it would take at least two years.
“We’re not alone” in having sewage and E. coli problems in bodies of water, said Rick Leonard, district director for U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Howland, D-13th.
Cleanup of similar problems in Cleveland would cost about $3 billion, and in Akron it would be about $1.4 billion, he said.