News from Wilmington Mayor James M. Baker, U.S. Senator Thomas R. Carper and Congressman Michael N. Castle
For
Immediate Release
Friday, February 3, 2006
Wilmington's
CSO Remediation Program
Continues, Aided Through Funding Secured
by the State's Congressional Delegation
Wilmington Mayor James M. Baker joined U.S. Senator Thomas R. Carper and Congressman Michael N. Castle today to announce a March 1 start for remediation of CSO # 27, the next step in the City's continuing program to manage and control its 40 combined sewer overflows (CSO). In addition, Mayor Baker announced plans to move forward before the end of 2006 with a previously stated proposal to implement a new, less costly, and environmentally friendly method of dealing with CSO's, called Real Time Control (RTC). Both CSO #27 and the Real Time Control CSO Program are being funded in large part through Federal dollars, along with appropriations from the State and City governments.
Mayor Baker noted that Senator Carper and Congressman Castle, along with Senator Joseph R. Biden, have been very effective supporters of the City's CSO program. Today, Senator Carper and Congressman Castle announced that another $1 million has been secured in Federal funding for CSO remediation in Wilmington. The delegation was also successful in 2004 in securing $1 million for Wilmington's CSO's.
"It
is a great day when we work together to continue solving a problem that affects
the residents of Wilmington," said Senator Carper. "This money will
provide key funding for the upcoming CSO project, and the additional funding
will pave the way for assistance in the future. I have always been a strong
believer in looking at best practices, and I commend the Mayor and his team
for looking at implementing advanced technology that may help us address,
in the future, the CSO problem in Wilmington."
"Combined sewage is certainly not a flashy subject, but I am very pleased
that the City of Wilmington has been addressing the important subject of combined
sewage overflow for the past decade," Congressman Castle said. "It
is our responsibility as your elected officials to ensure these important
infrastructure upgrades are made. Wilmington's long term plan will continue
to improve the quality of our water and our health," Castle continued.
Combined sewer systems are typical for many cities in the United States, especially systems designed toward the end of the 19th Century. These combined systems carry both sanitary sewage and urban storm water runoff to a treatment facility. When it rains, however, the volume of water is too great for Wilmington's treatment plant to handle, and the combined system overflows into rivers and creeks. Over the past decade, Wilmington has made considerable progress in controlling CSO discharges by significantly increasing the capacity of its wastewater treatment plant and through CSO remediation projects, such as the CSO project #27 and CSO project # 28 and # 29 in Canby Park, completed in 2005.
The City's next CSO project, CSO #27 in the Elsmere/Colonial Heights area, is a $2 million project, half of which is being funded with monies secured by the State's Congressional delegation in 2004. CSO # 27 is a one-year project involving the installation of a 30-inch diversion sewer along the banks of Silverbook Run and through a small section of the Town of Elsmere. When completed, CSO #27 will connect to CSO's #28 and #29 in Canby Park, improving the health of area waterways and reducing odors in the area.
Regarding the new Real Time Control (RTC) method of resolving the City's CSO problems, Mayor Baker said he is pleased that the $1 million presented today by the Senator and Congressman will enable the City to move forward with the program by the end of the year, funding construction costs and the purchase of computer hardware and software. Mayor Baker and Public Works Commissioner Kash Srinivasan said they are very encouraged by projections that the RTC system will reduce the estimated cost of CSO remediation in Wilmington from $114 million over a 20-year period to $35 million over a 10-year period.
Real Time Control responds to wet weather as it happens and prevents combined stormwater and wastewater sewers from overflowing. Using rain gauges, water level and flow sensors, and regulators, sewer flows are directed to specific areas within the City's underground piping system with capacity to convey, store or treat wastewater. Mayor Baker said it effectively transforms wastewater collection systems into underground networks that control the direction and velocity of flow, much like street signals control the flow of rush-hour traffic.
"Most importantly," said the Mayor, "the RTC method is less intrusive environmentally, negating the need to build large holding tanks around the City to control the storage of sewage and stormwater until it can be properly sent to the treatment plant."
Real Time Control systems are in use in Louisville, Kentucky and in Quebec City and Montreal, Canada. In addition, New York City has begun to implement an RTC CSO control system. Louisville expects to reduce annual combined sewer overflows by nearly three billion gallons with $83 million of capital improvements compared to more than $ 200 million without Real Time Control. In just three years, Real Time Control has decreased Quebec City's sewer annual overflows by 83 percent.
The City
will conduct a Public Workshop on the CSO #27 project on Wednesday, February
15 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Clarence Fraim Boys and Girls Club at 669
South Union Street. Presentations of approximately 15 minutes in length will
be available for the public during that time period to understand and ask
question about the CSO #27 project.
Contacts:
Emily
Cunningham
Senator Carper's Office
302.598.4915 (cell)
Kaitlin
Hoffman
Congressman Castle's Office
202.225.4165