City of Youngstown asks for modification of decades-old agreement to reduce sewage flow
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - The City of Youngstown is asking a federal judge for an amendment to a decades-old agreement with the U.S. EPA to reduce sewage from flowing into local waterways.
The agreement was made back in May of 2002. According to a press release announcing the initial agreement, the city expected to spend $100 million over 20 years to develop and implement a long-term sewage discharge control plan.
According to the release, Youngstown's sewer system is a combined sewer system, which is a system that collects and conveys sewage, stormwater and snowmelt in a single pipe.
This means in the event of precipitation that exceeds the capacity of the combined sewer, it results in a combined sewer overflow (CSO) from the overflow structure to a receiving water.
The original agreement resolved claims from the U.S. EPA alleging that the city was violating the Federal Clean Water Act and Ohio Revised Code regarding certain discharges including combined sewer overflows from the city's sewer collection system and wastewater treatment plant.
According to court documents filed on Friday, the city is requesting the court to replace the implementation schedule in the original agreement with a modified schedule stating that there has been "a significant change in circumstances" to justify this modification.
Court documents describe this significant change as the cost of one of the projects, referred to as the "Wet Weather Facility (WWF) Project" "skyrocketing."
When the project was initially approved, its estimated cost was around $62 million. However, an updated estimate revealed the new cost estimate to be $640 million, which is over 10 times the original estimate.
Additionally, court documents cite updated data showing that the number of overflow events and the overflow volume in the collection system known as "CSO 6057" are far less compared to data that was relied on when the long term control plan (LTCP) was developed back in 2014.
CSO 6057 is located across the Mahoning River from the wastewater treatment plant at the confluence of Crab Creek and the Mahoning River.
The original data was based on the understanding that this collection system would have 55 overflow events on an average annual basis. However, court documents state more recent data now shows a near 40% reduction in these annual overflow volumes.
Court documents describe the project as "oversized for its intended purposes" based on this new data.
"Forcing Youngstown to build the WWF Project is inequitable not only due to the substantial increase in the cost of the project and the availability of less expensive options that can meet the applicable performance standard, but also because the WWF Project will result in needless and wasted infrastructure," the document reads.
The document goes on to state that there are more cost-effective options for controlling the overflows that weren't available in 2014.
Construction of the WWF Project was required to begin in February of 2022. According to court documents, this construction has not started yet due to a change in circumstances.
The LTCP included two other projects as well: upgrades to the Wastewater Treatment Plant and the Mill Creek Park Sewer Project.
According to court documents, the city has completed all necessary upgrades to the treatment plant. The cost of these upgrades was projected to be $37.3 million, but the city incurred $70 million for the overall project.
However, court documents also state that while performing work on this project, the city invested in additional improvements at the plant that weren't required by the LTCP.
As for the Mill Creek Park Sewer Project, the estimated cost was $47.7 million, but updated estimates show a new estimated cost of $72.5 million.
The city was required to initiate design of the first part of the project in July of 2020 and is required to start construction in April of 2024. Due to these increased costs, these deadlines have not been met.
However, upon further evaluation the city has moved forward with the project despite these increases and compressed the overall schedule for the project to be completed a year and three months earlier than the scheduled deadline.
The modified schedule for the LTCP can be found in the PDF below.
