Akron officials are aligning with Mayor Dan Horrigan to call for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to let the city off the hook for an expensive sewage treatment project required by a federal consent decree.
Akron City Council unanimously voted Monday to urge the EPA to scrap a proposed $209 million wastewater treatment facility that’s part of a longtime federal consent decree to keep raw sewage from overflowing into local waterways.
In city council’s public utilities and green committee meeting Monday, Council Vice President Jeff Fusco expressed concern that residents’ sewer rates would have to increase by 20% to pay for the facility.
“It’s going to, obviously in the long run, in the short run really, have an adverse effect on our ratepayers, who are facing house payment, water and sewer bill, medication,” Fusco said. “That’s what’s driving this whole thing, and we really need to implore the [EPA] about that.”
Last week, Horrigan sent a formal dispute to the EPA asking the agency to eliminate the project from the consent decree. In a press conference near the Towpath Trail, where the treatment plant is proposed, Horrigan called the facility “useless” and a waste of ratepayers’ money, because that area of the Little Cuyahoga River is projected to have just three sewage overflows in a typical year.
Officials have instead proposed removing or fixing septic systems in other areas of the Cuyahoga River watershed.
Fusco added that the city has exceeded expectations on the previous 24 projects completed under the consent decree since 2014.
Emily Collins, strategic adviser to the mayor, said that’s part of the reason officials believe the wastewater facility is no longer needed.
“Our system is actually outperforming what we were expecting to achieve at this stage,” Collins said.
The city has proposed four projects as alternatives to the wastewater facility: treating wastewater at an existing facility on Cuyahoga Street in Akron, and helping to remediate sewage systems in three neighboring municipalities that are part of the watershed.
Akron has proposed working with the city of Peninsula to remove failing septic systems there, addressing sanitary sewer overflows in the village of Lakemore and conducting studies to start the process of providing sewer service in Springfield Township, Collins said.
These projects would be a quarter of the cost of the wastewater plant and ultimately would be more effective in improving water quality, she added. Officials at the Ohio EPA, Summit County Metro Parks and Cuyahoga Valley National Park are also supportive of the city's alternative plan, Collins said.
City officials have also urged residents to write letters to the EPA opposing the project. Hundreds of letters have already been sent, Gert Wilms, Horrigan’s chief of staff, said.
The EPA said it does not comment on ongoing enforcement negotiations. The agency has 45 days to respond to the city’s dispute.
