8/9/2006
Media Contact:
Margie Smith-Simmons, 327.4669 |
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City takes another “STEP” in the right direction
INDIANAPOLIS- Today, the Board of Public Works awarded a $13.9 million construction contract to replace failing septic systems with sanitary sewers in the Devon Corridor area on the city’s northeast side.
The Devon Corridor Septic Tank Elimination Project (STEP) will provide sanitary sewer service to a total of 739 homes and one church within an area generally bounded by Millersville Road on the west and north, Emerson Avenue on the east and 42nd Street on the south.
In 1996, the Marion County Health Department completed a door-to-door survey of 480 homes in the Devon Corridor project area and reported a 50 percent failure rate including bleed outs, repairs, sewage backups and high E. coli bacteria counts in surface water in drainage ditches.
The conversion to sanitary sewers will resolve longstanding health and environmental concerns caused by septic systems in these neighborhoods. This project is part of Mayor Peterson’s Clean Streams Healthy Neighborhoods initiative designed to curb raw sewage overflows in to rivers and streams, address chronic flooding and eliminate thousands of failing septic tanks in homes across the city.
Septic systems have a limited life and eventually fail. As a result, human waste leaches into groundwater, backyards and neighborhood ditches and streams. Failing septic systems are also linked to unsafe levels of E. coli in many neighborhood streams and ditches.
An estimated 30,000 homes in Marion County are served by private septic systems. The city has identified 18,000 of these as having septic systems that are failing or near failure. With STEP, these 18,000 high priority homes will be taken off septic systems and connected to city sewers over the next 20 years.
In the past, the city replaced septic systems with sewers through the state’s Barrett Law, which allowed municipalities to charge residents for such improvements. Under STEP, the typical property owner’s cost to connect to the sewer will be reduced by approximately 50 percent.
The city will hold a public meeting on August 31 where residents will have an opportunity to meet the contractor and learn about the phasing and timeline of the project.
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