Pond eases Washington sewer woes

WASHINGTON, Ind. (WTHI) - A southern Indiana community looks to utilize green solutions to a long time problem.

Washington, Ind. has a problem with combined storm and sanitary sewers. Every time a big rain hits, the city dumps untreated sewage into area streams.

Now, the city is looking at environmentally friendly plans to solve the pollution problem.

One step is a retention pond that stops 700 million gallons of water from rolling into town and into the community's combined sewers.

"This is common sense green. This is not green plus. This is green done right," said Scott Nally, IDEM Assistant Commissioner.

This project is just a beginning on a plan to finally control sewer overflows in the town.

"We're not going to overbuild for worst case scenario. We're going to know what worst case scenario is and we will build for that," said Washington Mayor Larry Haag.

The city is also planning on putting in a underground water tank near Hawkins Creek.

"All of the runoff from the city of Washington will come to this point and be stored in a 3 million gallon tub," said Todd Trinkle with IDEM.

From there the water will go into a new wetland the city plans to build in a 25 acre field.

And even though the plan could cost $20 million before it's all said and done, it's still cheaper than the $50 milllion it would cost to upgrade and expand the sewer plant.

"The state's going to do what it can with some of the stimulus money. We'll help with some brick and mortar. Unfortunately there's not enough money to go around."

State officials say 107 Hoosier communities are facing similar mandates to fix combined sewer overflow problems.