BROWNSTOWN
As Brownstown embarks on a $7 million wastewater project, the town council continues to receive good news related to funding opportunities.
Scott Hunsucker, superintendent of Brownstown Wastewater Utility, said the town received a $50,000 planning grant from the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs to address water infrastructure, allowing for a study to determine the need to replace some of the wastewater treatment system. The preliminary engineering report is one of OCRA’s requirements and will cover four aspects of the town’s infrastructure.
As they head toward the design phase, OCRA will be the main funding source for a grant to help with construction, and the balance will be covered through the State Revolving Fund Loan Programs.
Three other funding sources of stimulus money also are available, including one from the Indiana Finance Authority.
“We have the ability to tap into up to five funding sources, where normally, there are only two,” Hunsucker told the town council during a recent meeting.
Katie Castro Jackson, a project manager in Wessler Engineering’s wastewater group, said not only is it a unique year with a lot of funding opportunities, but the SRF loan rate is way lower than usual.
“So it’s a good time to take advantage of that,” she said. “SRF and IFA are both interested in this project and see it as a great thing for the community as well as wrapping in some of the storm structures that haven’t been addressed in some time.”
The project will cover the town’s two lift stations, sanitary sewer system, wastewater treatment plant and some storm structures.
Jackson said the Bob Thomas and Vallonia Road lift stations are past their anticipated lives.
The 40-plus-year-old Bob Thomas lift station, which is off of U.S. 50 on the north end of town, would be rebuilt and changed to a wet well setup with submersible pumps, which will make it better to maintain and have a better layout and improved electronics and controls, Jackson said. The SCADA system also would be improved to allow for remote monitoring.
The 35-year-old Vallonia Road lift station on the southwest side serves 75% of the town and has reached capacity. Most of it would be replaced and rehabilitated, addressing electrical needs and improving and lining the structure.
They have estimated project costs of $770,000 and $2,153,000, respectively.
For the existing sanitary sewers and manholes, the ones that weren’t rehabilitated in the 2017 cured-in-place piping project would be completed this time around.
“A lot of the sewer that was not rehabbed still remains as vitrified clay pipe, which was built in the 1950s, very susceptible to cracking, breaks, root damage, can cause sinkholes, so that all needs to be addressed, as well,” Jackson said.
Some of the sewers are undersized for the sanitary mains, requiring full replacement. Jackson said Indiana requires a sewer main to be at least 8 inches, and Brownstown has 10 that are 6 inches or smaller.
“When we did the 2017 project, they weren’t actually able to rehab those lines because they can’t CIPP lines smaller than 6 inches. Those would need to be completely replaced to 8-inch sewers to accommodate maintenance,” she said. “Several sewer mains experience solids buildup and require frequent maintenance and need to be addressed.”
There also would be 21 new sanitary sewer manholes installed to facilitate the sewer rehabilitation, 70 existing sanitary manholes rehabilitated and four existing sanitary manholes replaced with new structures.
“We would be looking at covering some more of those priority manholes that just did not get rehabbed, and this will cut down on the inflow and infiltration into your system and improve the maintenance,” she said.
All of that work will cost about $2,319,000.
At the wastewater treatment plant, Jackson said some of the equipment is past its anticipated life and has capacity issues. The influent fine screen, grit classifier, two clarifiers, ultraviolet disinfection system and roofs on the blower and administration buildings would all be replaced.
“We’ve been noticing this at a lot of communities for this particular UV system, they’ve gone to a new system, and so they’ve discontinued a lot of parts and it’s hard to order them, therefore hard to maintain, and the UV is a crucial part of the process at a treatment plant,” Jackson said.
The fine screen is ineffective against incoming rags and trash, she said.
“There has been an increased amount of flushable wipes, which there is no such thing as a flushable wipe, so don’t flush anything down your toilets other than toilet paper,” she said. “That has caused issues as well as there has been wrappers and some other debris that have been getting through the fine screen that cause maintenance issues throughout their plants and damages pumps and other process equipment.”
Also, the grit classifier is undersized, causing backups and sewage overflowing at the plant, and the water line is difficult to maintain because it’s going through a large field.
“If there’s something that breaks in the water line, it would probably go unnoticed because it does cross a swampy area, so that would also want to be addressed as well as some other miscellaneous building repairs at the treatment plant,” Jackson said.
The plant work will cost nearly $1,885,000.
Finally, the 52 stormwater structures would be rehabilitated or replaced, and there would be future stormwater drainage studies of seven project areas around Brownstown. That costs $133,000.
That puts the overall project, including construction, financial and design/soft costs, at $7,260,000.
The plan is to advertise for bids in January 2022, award the contract in early April, begin construction in late April and have the project completed by February 2023.
The town council is still awaiting the results from a sewer rate study to see if an increase is needed to complete the infrastructure improvements. Once the results are released, Hunsucker will be able to determine the scope of the project.
A worst-case scenario saw bills being raised to $104 a month, but SRF has a program to cap the rate increase, so the bill would be in the $65 to $75 range for 4,000 gallons.
The town last increased its sewer rates in 2012 and 2018.