Drainage Study May Expand South of 16th Street


(posted 7.24.07)

More storm water surveys will be hanging on homeowners' doors soon, but this time the surveys will focus on gathering sewer information problems south of 16th Street.

Speedway Storm Water Management Board member Paul Maves said that HNTB needs to address the sewer complaints in that area, especially before new tanks are designed and built for the IDEM's required Long Term Control Plan. IDEM is requiring the town to hold excess water during heavy rains at the waste water treatment plant so it can be treated properly before being discharged into Eagle Creek.

President Bill Golay did not want to investigate the problem unless the homeowners requested it through a survey. HNTB Engineer Tom Hutka agreed that a survey is a valuable piece of information to indicate if the problem is coming up in the floor drains, through the plumbing or elsewhere. The survey will indicate whether it is storm or sewage water. "There could be a dozen reasons why a basement gets wet." he said.

Maves thinks that when a lot of the storm water problems are fixed it won't require the huge clarifiers that are currently configured to store water at the plant. Maves noted that he heard about the problem at the town hall but the problem was never officially reported because homeowners fear they would not be able to sell their homes.

Waste Water Superintendent Norm Berry said it is important to disclose all of these problems before or during the preliminary design phase in case plant changes need to be made. It is too late to make changes once the design works goes pass that phase.

For the last 18 months, the storm water management board has directed the engineering firm HNTB to isolate the causes that result in sewage backing up into basements along Gerrard and Allison Avenue south of 21st Street. Although it is a separate system south of Crawfordsville Road, the residents on Gerrard Avenue and Allison Avenue that are located north of 16th Street have reported sewage backing up into their basements during heavy rains.

Hutka explained there were still a few problems that require the surveyors to go back and shoot elevations again on July 20, so he could not give a presentation at the July 19 meeting to explain the area and its findings.

HNTB is still working on developing a modeling system of the entire storm, sewer and combined sewer and storm pipes north of Crawfordsville Road, and eventually will develop another model system south of Crawfordsville Road to 16th Street. But with this recent announcement of more problems, Hutka thinks it is time to develop a computer model for the town's entire storm and sewer infrastructure system.

The next meeting is scheduled for August 30 at 5 p. m. at the town hall.