NAPPANEE — A multi-million dollar grant, along with a loan from the United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development will offset the City of Nappanee’s cost for the projected $28.9 million Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) utility project.
That announcement came Friday morning during a press conference at Nappanee’s City Center. Combined, the grant is in the amount of $12,865,000 and the loan is in the amount of $15,345,000 to be paid over 40 years at a rate of 2.375 percent.
U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly and U.S. Rep. Jackie Walorski were on hand to share news of the grant, awarded in person by State Director of USDA Rural Development Phil Lehmkuhler.
“You can’t imagine,” said beaming Nappanee Mayor Larry Thompson, “what this means to Nappanee.”
The mayor said the “two most important people” in helping this come to fruition were former Clerk-Treasurer Kim Ingle and current Clerk-Treasurer Kathy Brown. Thompson said when he took office 18 years ago the CSO was just a dream, but for the past 15 years he and his department heads have met every other week to report on the CSO project.
Nappanee city leaders were mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency to come up with a long-term control plan to separate the combined sewer overflow in the city, which is caused during wet weather events when the flow exceeds the capacity of the wastewater treatment plant and is discharged untreated into the Berlin Court Ditch.
Nappanee officials and attorneys attempted to appeal their compliance because the ditch is an agricultural ditch; not a waterway used to swim or fish, but was unsuccessful. Nappanee is one of many communities across the state with this requirement.
City officials and engineers have spent 15 years evaluating alternatives and the best and most cost-effective way to meet this federal requirement.
The project generally consists of the following:
• Ten connections to the existing CSO points.
• Approximately 5,600 linear feet of 48”-66” diameter interceptor sewer.
• 0.35 MG surge tank.
• 3.8 MG storage facility
• Screening and pumping facility
• 5 MGD high rate clarification wet weather treatment facility.
The project is scheduled to take two years to complete.
“This is a huge amount of money for the City of Nappanee,” said Mark Downey of Commonwealth Engineers. “Without this funding the project couldn’t be done.”