How much sewage do Bloomington utilities customers generate every year? About 2.57 billion gallons. Lake Monroe’s capacity of about 77.14 billion gallons could hold roughly 30 years worth of Bloomington’s sewage.

Bloomington’s sewage is not piped into Lake Monroe, of course. It goes to one of two wastewater treatment plants—Blucher Poole or Dillman Road. These days the Dillman Road facility often operates near or even over its rated capacity of 15 million gallons a day.

It’s a situation that caught the attention of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) recently, in 2016, and two decades ago, in 1999. IDEM sent “early warning” letters to Bloomington noting that the average daily flow through the plant, measured over the course of a year or more, was approaching or over 90 percent of the rated capacity of the facility.

So Bloomington’s utilities director, Vic Kelson, will be appearing in front of the city council on Wednesday (Sept. 11), to lay out the case for a sewer rate increase, to help pay for needed improvements to the city’s two wastewater treatment facilities.

The department’s capital improvement plan over the next seven years calls for about $35 million worth of improvements to Dillman Road and $17 million for the Blucher Poole facility. Continue reading “Higher rates for Bloomington sewer customers: An inside-and-out story” →