The Marshall County Commissioners received an update Monday morning from Ken Jones, CEO of the consulting engineering firm Jones, Petrie and Rafinski (JPR), about regional sewer districts.
Jones said JPR was initially hired by the Marshall County Health Department to conduct a study of underserved areas of the county in terms of wastewater treatment.
Jones explained, “As we were doing the analysis and working closely with the Health Department, we found fifteen unincorporated areas within the county that had very limited options relative to wastewater treatment especially on their own property.”
He said there are about 2,400 actual connections to a septic system or a sewer system that affects 12,000 people.
“These are communities like Teegarden, Tyner, Inwood, Burr Oak, and also there are some areas that are in a kind of a very compact orientation around the City of Plymouth that are also unserved. According to the folks at the Health Department, they have as big a problem or have a similar issue as some of the outlying areas.”
Those issues include questionable soils, among others.
Jones indicated that the study pared down the project to help serve about 900 homeowners to keep it within a reasonable cost that could have the least financial impact on those homeowners.
Jones continued, “We’ve identified four of these service areas, three are the very remote ones and then one that is up against the City of Plymouth. That represents about a $20 million project.”
The preliminary engineering report is about 80 percent done, but in a few months it could lead to a petition for a Regional Sewer District for the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) to consider, if the commissioners agree to it.
“If we decide to proceed with a Regional Sewage District, we’re confident that within the next few months working with Attorney [Jim] Clevenger, we would have a petition ready to go to IDEM. In my view, that’s going to be really the only way that this group of homeowners can be assisted by the county to take advantage of some of the most attractive funding opportunities that I’ve seen in my career,” said Jones.
He said creative funding, including American Rescue Act funds and partnerships, could keep down costs and could partner with the Indiana Finance Authority.
The commissioners did not make any decisions concerning the report, but they indicated that something needs to be done soon while the county could capitalize on funds for such projects.
