When as little as a quarter inch of rain falls, sewers in older parts of Indianapolis can overflow, sending untreated rainwater and sewage into our streams and causing health hazards to the public.
The city of Indianapolis started a Raw Sewage Overflow Notification Program in the spring of 2002 to inform the public about the possibility of raw sewage overflows during wet-weather events. This program alerts citizens through an email list server, telephone hotline and signs posted on waterways at various locations throughout the city.
Program objectives:
- Notify interested Indianapolis residents when sewage overflows are likely to occur,
- Educate about the health hazards and impacts associated with sewage in our waterways, and
- Enable citizens to take appropriate steps to protect themselves and their families from such hazards.
How to participate:
- E-mail List Server – Interested citizens and organizations can sign up online to receive raw sewage overflow notification e-mails. The e-mails provide information about the current water conditions in the combined sewer area, list the waterways that encompass the combined sewer area, and inform people of where they may find further information regarding this issue.
- Telephone Hotline – A telephone hotline, (317) 327-1643, a recorded message delivers the current conditions, hazards associated with water contact, and directs the public where to find further information including projects the Department of Public Works (DPW) is implementing to improve the water quality in Marion County.
- Signs – The city added additional language to existing signs in the combined sewer area, notifying the public of the overflow hotline and DPW's Web address. DPW placed these signs near outfalls, parks and public access points, and work in conjunction with signs posted by the Marion County Health Department.
The city's Clean Streams-Healthy Neighborhoods program is working to improve our waterways and reduce and eliminate raw sewage overflows. The city is implementing a 20-year, long-term plan to capture raw sewage overflows during all but a few large storms each year. Sewer and wastewater treatment plant improvements already have reduced overflows by hundreds of millions of gallons each year. When the plan is complete, more than 95 percent of raw sewage will be captured and treated in a typical year instead of overflowing in local rivers and streams.
Under an October 2006 agreement with the state and federal government, the city has agreed to invest:
- $1.73 billion (in 2004 dollars) by December 2025 to significantly reduce raw sewage overflows from the combined sewer system;
- $50.4 million (in 2004 dollars) by December 2015 to eliminate chronic overflows from seven locations in the separate, sanitary sewer system; and
- $3.5 million (in 2004 dollars) by December 2010 on supplemental environmental projects to eliminate septic systems in two neighborhoods.
Click here to view a list of planned projects.