Youngstown one of 10 communities nationwide selected to receive help with water issues

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has selected Youngstown to receive financial and technical assistance to help it carry out its $147 million plan to correct sewer overflows like the ones that closed the lakes in Mill Creek Park last summer.

Youngstown is one of 10 communities across the country selected to participate in the new $500,000 Water Community Assistance for Resiliency and Excellence program.

The 10 communities will work with the EPA and Jeff Hughes, director of the University of North Carolina Environmental Finance Center, to identify financing and best practices to allow them to make better decisions for upgrading drinking water, wastewater and stormwater systems, said Martin Hume, Youngstown law director.

Hume said he believes Youngstown was selected as a result of the effort by Mayor John A. McNally a year ago to express interest in the program when it was first being created.

Hume and Charles Shasho, Youngstown’s deputy director of public works, met Jan. 14 with EPA officials in Washington to learn more about the program.

Grants and low-interest loans are among the types of financial assistance being sought, Hume said.

Using the “design-build concept,” in which a project is managed by one team during both the design and construction phases, is one way to reduce costs and make the project more affordable, Hume said.

Water treatment-plant improvements are part of an agreement finalized in December 2014 between the city and the U.S. and Ohio EPAs to reduce combined sewer overflows, which led to Mill Creek Park park water-quality issues last summer after heavy rains.