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Drainage board approves New Carlisle treatment-plant outfall discharge to Nesbajani Ditch
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Summary
The board approved a permanent permit to discharge infrequent backwash/lagoon water from New Carlisle’s treatment plant to the Nesbajani Ditch (approximately 250 gpm during discharge events) after engineers presented a memo finding no adverse ditch impacts at that rate.
The St. Joseph County Drainage Board approved a request by the town of New Carlisle to discharge treated backwash and lagoon water to the Nesbajani Ditch, after an engineer told the board the outfall was unlikely to noticeably raise ditch levels.
Samantha, a consultant with DLZ Indiana, told the board she supplied a memo concluding that the proposed discharge — described as a backwash event that can amount to about 250 gallons per minute when it occurs — would not have an adverse effect on the ditch. Jared Hoss, the town engineer for New Carlisle, said the discharge is infrequent and based on lagoon backwash cycles; engineers modeled the effect and agreed the change would be a fraction of previously evaluated flows.
Board members asked clarifying questions about frequency and volume; engineers said backwash events are intermittent (about weekly at the most when lagoons are discharged) and that the town’s treatment plant currently operates well below its full design capacity. After the presentation, a board member moved to approve the request, it was seconded, and members voted in favor by voice.
The approval covers permanent relocation of the town’s backwash discharge to the Nesbajani Ditch under the county’s drainage permit process; the board’s action did not change state or NPDES/IDEM permitting obligations, which the town and its engineers said have been addressed separately.
