NEWS

City council debates sewer study funds

Spenser Hickey
Reporter

MARION – A request for an additional $193,215 to be paid to an environmental consulting firm drew heated criticism from Councilman Josh Daniels, with Mayor Scott Schertzer also voicing concerns.

The firm, Hazen & Sawyer Environmental Engineers, is conducting a no-feasible alternative study regarding the problem of excess storm water entering the city’s sewer system beyond Ohio Environmental Protection Agency regulations.

The initial contract was for $600,000, and the city’s water pollution control superintendent, Roger Baldinger, said the additional payment was for a long-term control plan that the consultants will also provide.

During consideration to suspend council rules to take a final vote on the funding ordinance, Daniels said he saw the study as being financially motivated rather than environmentally motivated.

“A no-feasible alternative study, what it says is we want proof that we can’t do any better, that what we’re doing is as much as we can do,” Daniels said. “I don’t think (the Ohio EPA is) working for a greener planet, I think they’re working for environmental consultants that have looked at this as a gold rush and they hang municipalities by the neck.”

Schertzer supported Daniels’ view, saying he saw the Ohio EPA as an “over-intrusive regulatory agency.”

“These are the kinds of hoops that the state makes us jump through to be in compliance with their rules and regulations that they are tasked to govern across the state of Ohio,” he said.

Ohio EPA spokeswoman Dina Pierce declined to directly respond to Daniels’ characterization, but said the agency’s mission is to protect public health and the environment and the current system is “unacceptable” because of health concerns.

Pierce said Marion currently has sewage overflows and treatment plant bypasses that exceed the plant’s permit because storm water is entering the sewer system; the study will evaluate options to decrease these overflows and increase treatment capacity.

“The city has had overflows of untreated sewage from the sewer lines, bypasses of untreated or partially treated sewage at the treatment plant and/or backups of sewage into homes,” Pierce said.

She said the agency received hundreds of complaints, including 170 in 2013, about sewage backing up into local residents’ basements.

“That's not acceptable, it’s a health risk, and it’s just gross. Regulatory-wise, gross doesn’t matter, but it is a public health risk and it needs to be addressed,” she said.

Pierce agreed with Daniels that the study wouldn’t make the world greener, saying this was about the public health risks. She said that carrying out the study may save the city money, as the initial plan in 2005 would have cost more than $100 million over 20 to 40 years and the goal is to find a less expensive alternative.

Baldinger said the money for improvements would be found through increased fees for sewer system users, and he thought Daniels’ frustration was the need to pay $600,000 just for a plan required by the Ohio EPA.

Schertzer said parts of the sewer system are 175 years old, and storm water enters the sanitary sewer during periods of heavy rainfall. He said while the plan may save money, the location of retention ponds is an important factor.

“It seems logical to retain the storm water within the city so there’s a greater benefit to the residential structures in the city,” he said.

Schertzer added that he viewed Daniels’ comments at the council meeting as more philosophical rather than technical in nature, and he agreed with them on that level.