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Date: 12/11/2015
CHICOPEE – Chicopee has the highest sewer fee in the region and still has many capital improvements to make to its water system. The question facing city officials is how to make those repairs and renovations while not driving sewer fees up even more.
The means to strategize Chicopee future water needs is through the creation of an Integrated Water Resources Management Plan. The idea was discussed Dec. 3 at a meeting at the Chicopee Public Library.
In his introduction to the meeting Mayor Richard Kos explained the city has paid out more than $160 million to address needs of the sewer and water system, especially living up to the mandate set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to eliminate the combined sewer overflows (CSO) that have allowed raw sewage to be swept into the Connecticut River.
Despite the expenditure, Kos noted that there are residents who face sewer backups. Low water pressure, rusty or bad smelling water and street flooding.
Kos added the city wants to hear from residents about their water and sewer related problems through a survey that is available on line at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1xL5MS3Gmu5fNgyXPRnlqmELh-vN0m0ZEH-Rksz-fqyo/viewform.
“We need to know all the issues. We need to know from the public what issues they have,” Kos said.
By understanding the work yet to be done, Kos said projects can be developed that can take advantage of the limited resources the city has.
Tiffany Labrie and Todd Brown of Tighe & Bond, then explained the need for an integrated plan. Labrie said the plan was “not a way of getting out of anything.” Instead the plan “can address the most pressing issues first.”
She noted that from fiscal year 1989 to fiscal year 2016 while cost for storm water and drinking water rose modestly and shown some stability, the costs associated with the sewer system have risen dramatically.
Complicating the EPA mandate is the fact more sewer pipe had to replaced than originally thought, she added.
Brown said that so far 392 million gallons of CSO reduction have been accomplished and 49 miles of new sewer, 20 miles of new storm drain and seven miles of new water mains have been installed.
By emphasizing the demands of the CSO mandate, capital improvement projects, such as replacing old water pipes, have been delayed, Brown said.
Without an integrated plan, Brown said, if the city maintains its present course, the majority of the necessary capital improvements will not be addressed until the period of 2025 through 2065.
He and Labrie said that postponing some of the CSO work and prioritizing capital projects based on relative benefit to the city, the amount of disturbance the project would create the affordability and the assigning of weights to benefits is an approach to consider.
City officials will be meeting with representatives of the EPA and other regulatory agencies on Dec. 22.
Kos confirmed, though, the EPA will have to approve alterations to the CSO work and schedule.