In an effort to continue to cut down on the amount of surface water that makes its way to the town’s wastewater treatment plant, the Crothersville Town Council last week agreed to advertise for bids to cap several combined sewer inlets along Moore Street.
“With the amount of rain we have had, we have been treating a lot of surface water when it gets to the sewer plant,” said council president Ardell Mitchell. “So it makes sense to try to prevent rainwater for entering the sewer system.”
Mitchell said a recent engineering survey revealed several broken pipes and three inlets where water flowing in ditches along Moore Street from East Street to Preston gets into the sanitary sewer system.
If rainwater isn’t allowed to flow into the sanitary sewer, where will it go?
“In theory it will flow north through an underground pipe into the head of Hominy Ditch that flows under Preston Street,” said Mitchell.
Hominy Ditch is an east-west natural drain that flows past the sewer treatment plant and empties into the Muscatatuck River west of town.
Mitchell said the effort will also document the town’s continued efforts to separate storm water from sanitary sewage and meet the state’s CSO (Combined Sewer Overflow) mandate. Much of those requirements were met with recent overhaul of the wastewater treatment plant and re-routing some of the distribution system.
“This is not a major project to dig down and cap inlets with bricks and concrete. We need to encourage local contractors with a backhoe to bid on the work,” he said.
The council voted unanimously to advertise for proposals to do the work. Bids will be due by 4:30 p.m. on Aug. 6 and opened at that evening’s town council meeting.
