Project that will stop sewage discharges into park will cause disruptions

By JORDYN GRZELEWSKI | jgrzelewski@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Whenever ground breaks on a project to stop the city's discharge of sewage into Mill Creek Park's lakes – whether that is in 2024 or sooner if local, state and congressional representatives succeed in efforts to push the project forward – areas in and near the park will face significant disruptions.

"In terms of the park, it will be a tremendous mess" during construction, Mayor John A. McNally has said.

"We're talking months of disruption in that section, in various stages," said professional engineer John Pierko of MS Consultants Inc., author of the long-term control plan for the city's combined sewer overflow. He says, however, that this plan in particular was chosen to minimize those disruptions, and that the bulk of it will disrupt activity on Glenwood Avenue.

The city's combined storm and sanitary-sewer overflow system has 18 discharge points in the Mill Creek drainage area. Fifteen of those overflow directly to Mill Creek. Two overflow to Calvary Run and one to Bears Den Run, both of which are Mill Creek tributaries. The CSOs to Mill Creek activate during certain wet weather events.

The city CSO system caught the attention of the public, as well as local, state and federal officials, after a massive fish kill in Lake Newport – a Mill Creek Park lake – at the end of June. Sewage overflows into the park after heavy rain was determined to be the cause of the fish kill.

Then, on July 10, park officials announced the closure of lakes Newport, Cohasset and Glacier for public use until further notice after Mahoning County Board of Health tests found elevated levels of E. coli bacteria in the water, making the lakes unsafe for recreational use.

The situation has prompted officials – including park leaders, state legislators, county commissioners and others – to call for pushing forward a planned project to stop overflows into Mill Creek.

Whether that is possible has yet to be determined.

THE PLAN

Before the fish kill and closing of the lakes, the city already had entered into an agreement, plans for which first were initiated in 1997, with the federal Environmental Protection Agency to invest $146 million in upgrades to the city sewer system. That includes expansion of the city wastewater treatment plant, upgrades to plant treatment processes and equipment, and $47 million for an interceptor to keep wastewater from flowing into Mill Creek. Terms of the agreement call for design work for the interceptor to begin in July 2020, with "substantial completion" set for December 2033.

That portion of the project, which will eliminate CSO discharges into Mill Creek by increasing the capacity of the combined sewer system and rerouting sewage to a Mahoning River overflow location, will unfold in four phases.

Most heavily impacted will be roads near Mill Creek Park, specifically Glenwood Avenue and West Glacier Drive.

Pierko described the process this way: "It will be literally tearing the center of the road up and putting a pipe right down the middle of the road and replacing an existing line."

The project will replace existing combined sewer with a box culvert along West Glacier Drive, then add a new, relocated 48-inch combined sewer from one overflow location to Glenwood Avenue. That new sewer will extend down Glenwood Avenue to a metering chamber between Glenwood And East Newport Drive. An existing combined sewer that runs through Mill Creek Park will remain in service.

Pierko said the Mill Creek basin project is is the initial portion of the project that "will start at the confluence of the Mahoning River and follow it up West Glacier Drive, literally under the road with a 5-foot by 10-foot box culvert, clear up to where that [one] overflow exists," Pierko said at a meeting of officials convened on Thursday by McNally. "At that point the line will go down to 48," crosses a little bit of park property and then straight down Glenwood Avenue."

Construction work "will disrupt traffic and business on West Glacier Drive, when that's going in," Pierko said. "During construction of that, basically that roadway will not be accessible at all in various stages as construction progresses," Pierko said in an interview.

This option for the interceptor project was chosen to minimize disruptions to the park, Pierko said.

"The other alternative ... would have been a true 'rip and tear the park apart' choice, to be avoided at all costs," he said. "In doing that, yes, Glenwood Avenue will be disrupted substantially, but we figured it's better than the park."

After the project is complete, Pierko said, the city has one year in which it can keep its overflows open. After that, the city is required to seal them.

THE TIME LINE

Construction within the park is scheduled to last for nearly three years. Work along Glenwood is expected to last more than three.

The first phase of the project is scheduled to begin Dec. 1, 2018, with solicitation of a consultant. The project is scheduled to last 3,935 days.

The first project "milestone" is scheduled for July 11, 2020, with initiation of design work. Construction is scheduled to begin April 5, 2024.

The first two phases of construction will take place within the park. According to the official implementation schedule, the second phase of the interceptor project is expected to be complete by Jan. 1, 2028.

Although this portion of the project will be the one that disrupts activities in the park, Pierko says roadways will be shut down in sections rather than all at once.

The third phase is scheduled for construction between Dec. 4, 2029, and Jan. 7, 2032. Construction for the final phase will begin Oct. 31, 2031, and end Dec. 30, 2033, marking the completion of the interceptor project.

STILL MORE WORK

Even after that date, however, more work likely will take place. The project does not address sewage overflows into the Mahoning River — something which the city will have to address in the future.

Despite the likelihood of lengthy disruptions to visitors' ability to use areas of the park, park leaders believe the result of the interceptor project is worth the inconvenience.

"It's a worry," said Lou Schiavoni, board president for the park. But, "The end is going to justify the means."