Sewer board warns plant near capacity; approves conditional will-serve letters and engineering task orders

The Greene County Sewer District board on Wednesday discussed a shortfall between committed sewer capacity and the district's treatment-plant capability, approved a letter of strong support seeking federal funding for water and wastewater work at the Westgate at Crane Technology Park and the town of Crane, and authorized engineering task orders to study options to serve three pending developments.

Board members and staff told the meeting the district's wastewater treatment plant is rated at about 50,000 gallons per day (gpd) and that current commitments on paper exceed that level. Staff said one developer's allocation alone is 31,500 gpd, another prospective customer (referred to in the meeting as Enhanced) has requested up to 12,000 gpd but may accept a lower figure, and other commitments push the total well above 50,000 gpd in preliminary calculations.

That shortfall, trustees said, matters because state regulators evaluate flows on a rolling annual basis and because the district must balance issuing "will-serve" letters that let developers proceed with on-site design and the district's legal and operational capacity to accept new hookups.

At the meeting staff presented a worksheet showing that with current commitments the district would be looking at about 69,475 gpd; staff said getting Enhanced's request reduced to 4,800 gpd and an agreement with developer Tom Weiniger (variously spelled in the record) to release some capacity to the district could reduce modeled use to roughly 38,000 gpd with about 11,800 gpd of spare capacity (about 76 percent of rated capacity under that scenario). Trustees and staff stressed those numbers reflect commitments and projected use, not actual connected flow, and that per‑home load estimates commonly used by regulators (310 gpd per home, discussed at the meeting) tend to be conservative.

Because the district is already allocated near or above its rated capacity on paper, the board said any will-serve letter issued to prospective commercial or residential projects must be conditional unless developers agree to reduced allocations or provide other assurances. The board moved to prepare a will-serve letter for a pending project and to authorize the board president to sign an unconditional will-serve letter only if specific conditions are satisfied (for example, an amended capacity request from Enhanced and a written commitment from Weiniger clarifying how much capacity he will relinquish). The board approved that motion.

Board members described negotiations underway with three major proposals: a Loves Truckstop-related commercial project, a Prometheus project along Harvest Church Road, and an INDOT-associated roadside rest/pipeline alignment. Commissioners present said they prefer coordination that avoids building redundant crossing infrastructure (for example, routing new sewer to an agreed lift station instead of crossing state highways twice) and would like firm developer commitments for construction or for payment of system development charges (EDU or other upfront fees) if developers want to reserve capacity.

To help the district negotiate and to generate construction and budget options, the board approved issuing task orders to Western Associates (engineering) to evaluate three developments, lay out options to serve them (lift station locations, force main vs. gravity, utility corridor concepts) and provide budget estimates and guidance for expanding the district boundary if needed. The board set a combined not-to-exceed total of $20,000 for the initial work and approved preparing the task orders for signature.

Separately, the board approved a letter of strong support to U.S. Rep. Mark Messmer seeking federal (congressionally directed) funding or expedited attachment of the district's Crane-area water and wastewater projects to legislation that is likely to move faster than standalone earmarks. The letter asks for funding for a new treatment plant, collection-system upgrades, well-field improvements, and an elevated storage tank to serve both current needs and future growth; trustees said acceptance of town wastewater by the regional district would follow remediation of inflow-and-infiltration (I&I) problems and construction of the new plant.

Staff and outside consultants briefed the board on regulatory implications. A consultant explained that IDEM (Indiana Department of Environmental Management) typically reviews annual average flows and organic loading; a district that approaches 90 percent of rated hydraulic capacity will usually receive a notice encouraging planning for expansion. The consultant told trustees the agency will work with systems that have a credible long-term expansion plan and that in some cases higher billed daily flow can be managed if pollutant loading remains low, but an expansion timeline and funding plan will be necessary to avoid enforcement risk.

Board members asked staff to continue diplomatic negotiations with developers, to request a firm, amended consumption estimate from Enhanced, to meet with Weiniger to clarify his near-term buildout schedule, and to present the Western Associates task orders and budgets for final approval and signature.

The board approved the task orders and the two letters described above and directed staff to return with the amended will-serve language and the engineers' estimates at or before the next regular meeting.