Addressing Raw Sewage Overflows
The Plan
The city is implementing a long-term plan to capture raw sewage overflows during all but a few large storms each year. This plan will protect streams during dry weather and small storms when people are most likely to be using them for recreation.
The plan involves digging a deep tunnel along White River and Fall Creek to capture overflows during a storm. New sewers along Eagle Creek, Pleasant Run, Bean Creek and Pogues Run will capture overflows and direct them to the tunnel and treatment plants.
Underground storage tanks and new sewers also will capture raw sewage that would otherwise flow into the streams. The tunnel and underground tanks will store the sewage until after a storm, when it will be sent to the city’s sewage plants for treatment. In some neighborhoods, the city will separate sewers to eliminate overflows.
Costs and Benefits
The city of Indianapolis is implementing a $1.7 billion plan (in 2004 dollars), which will reduce raw sewage overflows into Indianapolis waterways from 45-80 times in a typical year to two to four times in a typical year. Even after the plan is fully implemented, some overflows will still occur during the largest storms, creating infrequent, limited periods when high stream flows and pollution levels will make waterways unsuitable for swimming and other full-body recreational use.
When the 20-year federally mandated plan is complete at the end of 2025, residents and businesses will benefit from the following:
- Improved public health and quality of life in many neighborhoods now suffering from the sight and stench of raw sewage.
- Capture of up to 97 percent of sewage during wet weather.
- Reduced overflow frequency from 45 to 80 events per year to two to four events per year—actual overflows will depend on the weather each year.
- Cleaner streams for fish and other aquatic life.
- Reduced odors, sanitary waste and other unsightly materials found overflowing from sewers into streams.
- Minimized impacts on neighborhoods and businesses by constructing most overflow storage facilities deep underground.
Because water pollution has many causes, we need an integrated, watershed-wide effort to achieve our water quality goals. State and regional cooperation will be needed to resolve stormwater runoff and other difficult-to-control water pollution sources. Indianapolis wants to ensure that affordable investments in water pollution control will yield the greatest benefit possible for human health, the environment and the citizens who live in and downstream of Marion County.
Learn more about the city of Indianapolis' Raw Sewage Overflow Long Term Control Plan.