The Evansville Water and Sewer Utility manages the infrastructure that residents and businesses use everyday. Part of this management happens at EWSU semi-monthly board meetings.
These open meetings are held at the new Sunrise Pumpstation near the river cascade.
On Tuesday, the board approved project expenditures for approximately $3.5 million dollars, which isn’t that unusual.
Lane Young is Executive Director of the EWSU which works under the oversight of the elected board. He said many of the expenditures were contract amendments for ongoing projects.
“So when (contractors work) underground, you encounter obstacles; sometimes you can account for those, sometimes you can't,” Young said. “And then when you cannot, and the contractor has to spend extra time or extra materials to solve the problem and install the work, then we have to change the contract.”
The good news is that there were also project decreases of just under $40,000 because there were fewer of those contingency problems.
Several important projects are underway. Right now the EWSU is working on the Trinity Storm Water project, building a new treatment plant and recoating the inside of an important sewer line — all large, to massive undertakings.
The sewer recoating project was unexpected, and will cost $1.8 million. Young said in his opinion, it's the single most important item on the agenda.
It’s to rehab the Bee Slough Sewer pipe to prevent failure of this large, old, but important sewer conduit.
EWSU Board President Steve Heidorn said it’s their job to watch over the utility staff and budget. The meetings are open to the public, allowing residents to see this process in action — how they watch over 100 miles of city water lines, and watch for sections that need to be replaced periodically.
“And it's done by monitoring how many breaks and stuff we have, that indicates what the product is — whether it's holding up or not. And so then we have to get contracts to get those replaced.”
Heidorn said they’re always working on complying with the federal consent decree to better treat sewer water before it’s sent back into the Ohio River.
He suggests attending these meetings to learn more about water and sewer issues.
Young says the Trinity Stormwater Park should be operating March of 2024, likely having hit all the foreseeable delays.
This project will separate storm water from the sewer water stream, holding it in underground tanks, so be released slowly and reduce localized flooding.
The park receives stormwater runoff from 24 acres of downtown Evansville.
Regarding the new water treatment plant — this requires moving other important facilities such as the Levee Authority Building and the street maintenance department, which is already under construction on Harlan Avenue. The Levee Authority’s new building will be on their own property near the Vanderburgh County Jail.
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