IDEM holds public hearing in Tippecanoe County on proposed Buck Creek and Colburn regional sewer district

An Indiana Department of Environmental Management hearing on a petition to form the Buck Creek and Colburn Regional Sewer District drew residents to the East Tipp Middle School cafeteria for technical presentations and a public-comment period.

The petition, filed with IDEM’s Office of Water Quality, is the subject of a public notice that began March 17, 2025; written comments on the petition were listed in the hearing as due by April 28, 2025. IDEM hearing officer Emily Faust told attendees the hearing’s purpose was to “give all interested parties an opportunity to comment on the petition concerning the creation of the Buck Creek And Colburn Regional Sewer District,” and that the department will accept oral and written evidence for its record.

The sewer project, as described by Tippecanoe County staff and the design team, would serve the communities of Buck Creek and Colburn and carry wastewater to a new treatment site north of Colburn. County Commissioner Tracy Brown opened the session and introduced engineers from the project design team. Engineer Steve Henshin said the plan calls for local gravity sewers in each town, two main community pump stations and a long force main between Buck Creek and Colburn. "It's a gravity sewer collection system," Henshin said, describing manholes, 8-inch main pipes in streets and isolated ejector pumps for a small number of low-lying homes.

Karl Tanner, who described the treatment components, said the proposed wastewater system would use aerated treatment lagoons with cropland irrigation for disposal. "The process is a aerated treatment lagoon with the disposal is going to be irrigation onto cropland," Tanner said. He gave the design flow as 26,000 gallons per day, said the lagoons provide roughly 60 days of detention and a separate storage lagoon provides about 120 days, and said the treatment configuration includes two roughly half-acre treatment lagoons and a storage lagoon described in the presentation as 1.3 acres contained by 3–7-foot earthen berms. Tanner said the design provides additional capacity "approximately up to a hundred additional homes" and includes influent metering, bar screens, an effluent pump station, effluent metering and a nonpotable well for irrigation uses.

The design team said the project would be divided into five construction contracts — separate bids for the Buck Creek collection work, the Buck Creek pump station and force main to Colburn, the Coburn/Colburn collection work, the Coburn pump station and the center-pivot irrigation/disposal system — to encourage contractor participation and competitive pricing. Henshin gave figures presented during the meeting: roughly 88 service connections for Buck Creek, about 71 connections for Colburn and about 23,000 feet (roughly 4.5 miles) of force main between the towns. He described two main pump stations (a 15-horsepower grinder station in Buck Creek and a larger station in Colburn) and said the Buck Creek pump station will handle about 50 gallons per minute while the Coburn pump station is sized for roughly 90 gallons per minute when it must carry Buck Creek and Coburn flow together.

Engineers described construction impacts — open trenching, pavement restoration and staged paving — and said final paving is likely to occur near project completion. They also described practical hookup steps: the county will build a stub lateral to each property line (a 6-inch lateral stub at the right-of-way), property owners will be responsible for installing the house lateral from roughly the house to the stub, and septic tanks must be pumped out and abandoned (pump out, make holes in the tank bottom and backfill with pea gravel or sand while crushing lids, as described at the hearing).

Funding and schedule drew repeated questions from residents. Commissioner Tracy Brown and staff said the county has allocated American Rescue Plan Act funds for the capital work and that the county’s ARPA allocation for the project is $11,300,000. County staff said some design and land-acquisition costs have already been paid and the remainder is held for construction. Project scheduling shown at the hearing allocates about 450 construction days for the multiple contracts; presenters said a realistic completion target would place the district substantially complete in September–October 2026 and noted that ARPA funds must be expended by the end of 2026.

Attendees asked how much customers will pay. IDEM staff and county presenters said a preliminary operational-rate estimate is about $50 per month per single-family equivalent; county staff described that figure as an early estimate and said hookup costs and final rates will be set by the district if it is created. Several residents said the up-front connection cost is their main worry; presenters said the county is seeking grant and low-cost options for connection assistance but that no county-wide hookup grant was finalized at the hearing.

Residents raised environmental and operational concerns during the public-comment period and subsequent questions: potential odor and noise from lagoons and aeration equipment, flood risk and overflow protection for pump stations and lagoons, effects on nearby creeks and groundwater, and the risk to buried geothermal heating loops near proposed trenches. Engineers said the lagoons will be lined with a 2-foot bentonite clay layer, include emergency storage capacity (presenters cited an approximate 800,000-gallon emergency-storage margin) and that aeration options considered include floating aerators (quoted at about 34 decibels) or a blower/diffused-air alternative with blowers housed inside a building. On power reliability they said the treatment plant will accept a portable generator with a manual transfer switch and that the pump stations will be equipped to accept portable generators or have connection points; county and design staff said the district will arrange portable generators and an operator on call.

IDEM staff emphasized the agency’s regulatory role: Faust said staff would not advocate for or against the district but would accept evidence and factual testimony that the department will consider in deciding whether to approve the petition. Faust and Deputy Assistant Commissioner Paul Higginbotham described public-record procedures and where petition materials and the hearing transcript would be available for inspection.

Several residents asked about governance and accountability if the district is formed. Presenters said the petition calls for a five-member governing body; three members would be appointed by the Tippecanoe County commissioners and two by the Tippecanoe County Council, with a mix of district residents/property owners required among appointees and staggered terms to avoid board turnover all at once. Presenters said the district, once formed, will set billing policies (for example whether accessory buildings with plumbing count as fractional additional units or full additional users), set connection deadlines and hire or contract for certified system operators; the operators are licensed by the state and are responsible for meeting reporting and inspection obligations.

The hearing record includes multiple individual comments and technical questions that IDEM staff and county engineers recorded for the department’s consideration — including requests from several residents for individual follow-up, maps of proposed lateral locations, and clarifications about hook-up timing and exemptions. The hearing concluded with IDEM staff reminding attendees of the written-comment deadline and that IDEM will consider oral and written submissions in its decision on the petition.

No formal vote or final administrative action on the petition occurred at the hearing; IDEM will review the record and make a decision following its procedures.