Town seeks $750,000 ORCA grant to fund wastewater-plant upgrades to handle high organic loads

Jessica Condra, project administrator with the Indiana 15 Regional Planning Commission, opened the ORCA grant public hearing and said, "The town is requesting a grant for $750,000 which is the maximum that can be requested." She told the council the application requires two public hearings, noted a local match of $879,113 and said the initial project cost estimate tied to the application documentation was $1,629,113. Condra asked residents to complete a survey and provide letters of support by Oct. 13 so staff could include community input before the Oct. 24 application deadline.

Eric Parsley of Commonwealth Engineers described operational and capital issues at the town's wastewater plant and the purpose of the proposed project. Parsley said the plant has operated under an agreed order because of past effluent violations and that recent operational changes and a new operations contractor have produced more consistent performance. "The crux of the project really is, to do improvements to the plant to handle higher organic loads," Parsley said, describing plans to reuse existing tankage and "change the internals essentially to be able to modify the process to handle organics better." He also flagged a nonfunctional grit-removal device that the engineers recommended replacing, though they were considering removing that element from the ORCA-funded scope to reduce cost.

Parsley gave a later, higher total estimate during Q&A: "The total cost as it sits right now is $2,300,000," and said the $750,000 ORCA request would reduce the town's share. Council members and the plant operator cautioned that influent organic concentrations are high; the operator, Scott Sherry, said the plant's influent shows "pretty high BODs, high ammonia," and emphasized that the upgrades should provide "a little buffer built into this so that...those little variations don't cause a problem." Council members asked whether a nearby egg-washing plant or schools could be the source of the high organics; Parsley said sampling from the egg-washing operator showed high organics in a single sample and that more data will be needed to determine point sources.

Parsley told the council that, if the upgrades are completed and the plant successfully completes a post-construction demonstration period without further effluent violations, the agreed order could be rescinded. Condra said staff will accept survey responses and letters by Oct. 13 and will incorporate community feedback into the application that is due Oct. 24. The council agreed to allow staff and the engineer to continue refining costs and to return the signed "action to proceed" authorization when paperwork is ready for signatures.