St. Joseph County drainage board approves outfall permit for IC 3 South Campus, discusses upstream erosion tied to increased pump flow

The St. Joseph County Drainage Board on Jan. 25 approved a request to allow two 12‑inch outfall pipes from detention basins at the IC 3 South Campus to discharge into nearby ditches, while members and residents debated who should pay for recurring ditch and crossing repairs caused by increased upstream flows.

Andy Denam, the civil engineer for the IC 3 South Campus project, told the board the campus will rely on two separate detention systems that will each discharge through a single 12‑inch outfall: one to the Rogers Clark Ditch along Horton Road and one to a neighboring ditch on the east side of the site. Denam said the basins are being designed to detain runoff from about 200–230 acres and that, once built, the outfalls would release at roughly 5–6 cubic feet per second per pipe in overflow conditions. He also said the applicant has applied for an individual permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and does not anticipate installing the pipes before the corps issues that permit, which he said is not expected until the first quarter of 2026 at the earliest.

The board’s decision to approve the outfall request followed extended discussion about localized bank failures and sedimentation attributed by several speakers to increased pumped flow from nearby industrial sites. One board member described four large…