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Knox County water director warns of high ‘inflow and infiltration,’ outlines well, generator and admin‑building plans
Summary
Jeff Paper, Knox County’s water and wastewater director, told commissioners the system is seeing elevated clean-water inflow that is driving up treatment volumes, outlined delayed work on well No. 7 and an administration building, and said ARPA-funded generators prevented overflows during a recent outage.
Jeff Paper, director of the Knox County Water and Wastewater Department, told the Board of Commissioners on March 17 that heavy rains and worn infrastructure have driven a marked increase in "inflow and infiltration" (INI) into the sewer system, raising treatment volumes by roughly one million gallons compared with winter months.
Paper said the county sees INI in multiple forms — surface runoff entering manholes, cracked or leaking sewer pipes on either the homeowner or county side, and illegal connections such as downspouts or sump pumps tied into sanitary sewers. "It is illegal per Ohio EPA to have clean water connections," he said, adding that some sump pumps are difficult to detect during CCTV inspections but will be required to be disconnected when found.
Why it matters: higher INI raises pumping and treatment costs and can overload small package plants. Paper said recent camera work and line repairs in…
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