Youngstown Wastewater Rate Increase

[jay]

Are there any areas of the city that do not have combined sewers?

I'm pretty sure there are large areas of the west side where the storm lines and sewage lines are separated.  I know of numerous places where the storm water drains to nearby streams.

[AllanY2525]

The settlement the city reached with the EPA was 12 years ago, in 2002.  It called for the city to
spend about 120 million over 20 years or so to bring the city into compliance, which means
that the city has already had 12 years to get a move-on with the necessary changes and
improvements.

I think the problem is not so much the total volume of raw sewage - as Jay already points out
demand has gone down considerably with the population loss.  The problem is that the WAY the
city's sewer system was designed it allows this mixture of sewage and storm water to dump
into the river when it does rain hard. 

If the city was doing these changes and upgrades incrementally, it would have been easier
on [ the city ] than waiting until the last moment to get started.

[jay]

Question

Are there any areas of the city that do not have combined sewers?

[jay]

Wasn't some aspect of the 2010 Plan to reduce the service area of the city?  If we were to abandon service areas of the city, we could eliminate both sanitary sewage and storm water from entering the combined sewer system.

[northside lurker]

One would think that with the shrinking of the city's population over the years, the current sewer system would be adequate to handle this greatly reduced flow.

Would the flow be greatly reduced, though?  Back when Youngstown had its peak population, it was still common to only bathe once a week.  But, more importantly, I'm guessing it rains as much today as it did back then.  The EPA has declared that it's bad to dump raw sewage into Mill Creek, even under extenuating circumstances. (when there are heavy rains)  The city has been putting this off for years, and the EPA has finally said "enough is enough."

[Towntalk]

Minute after minute, hour after hour, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, decade after decade in the dank bowels of the Government Printing Office a gaggle of composers hunch over their flickering screens typing out the words that reside on the sheaf's of recycled paper sent down to them by unknown and unseen hands, like a blizzard, while in the press room the mighty presses daily spew forth the daily edition of the Federal Regester, and as it wends it's way into the Mail Room, mindless robots stamp address labels on each copy ... hundreds, nay thousands each day, and load them into mail trucks to be delivered to their subscribers (they don't pay a single penny for postage ... they're all postage free) who will duly toss them onto the mountain of other copies of the Register, unread.
But the story does not end there, for printed on the pages of this publication are all of the latest rules and regulations that the various alphabet agencies have manufactured, rules that have the force of federal law, and if violated can be punishable in a federal court of law, even though they hadn't seen the light of day in Congress, nor have they received the signature of the President.
But wait a moment, must every division of government have to have a staff whose only job it is to pour over every issue of the publication and update their department heads about the new rules and regulations? The alphabet agenciessay YES, but our budgets say WE CAN'T AFFORD IT, while private sector businesses simply close down their American operations and move out of the country.

[PD]

There should be a public meeting
To let everyone know it doesnt matter if its good enough or that we are shrinking but that the EPA says do it or pay double
Well at least we have obamacare and welfare is at an all time high
For a note. I have no problem with vets, disabled or mentally ill receiving benefits
I do however disagree with my hard earned taxes going to a family that is able to work but refuses to

[Towntalk]

When the bureaucrats in Washington howl like warewolfs in the night or screech like banshees in the light of a full moon, then the locals have to act whether it's reasonable or not.
In the back rooms of all the alphabet agencies are little men whose job it is to dream up new regulations, while in another there are other little green men whose job it is to enforce all those new regulations, and with their green eyeshades pulled down, they carefully examine every shred of paper that cities like Youngstown have to turn in, looking for any reason, no matter how trivial, to slap us with a hefty fine for not being in compliance, so no matter how loudly we may whine, there is absolutely nothing that we can do about it.
Day after day, week after week they go about their work like mindless robots, and no one in Congress has the courage of challenging them either in the House or Senate, for they too are complicit in this nasty business.
The moral of this tale of woe?
There ain't none bub, so get use to it.

[jay]

One would think that with the shrinking of the city's population over the years, the current sewer system would be adequate to handle this greatly reduced flow.

[Towntalk]

Some folks do not realize that when Washington starts nipping at your heels, there is no public input. The only response that Washington wants to hear when they say "JUMP" is "How high Master."

[joly1584]

I assume there were no public meetings because these funds are to pay for Federal EPA mandated improvements.

Part of the problem is that the city has been fighting this for so long that it is costing more to do the work now than it would have cost originally, not to mention all the money probably spent fighting it.

[jay]

Youngstown's wastewater rates are expected to be increased by 17% over the next four years.

Why weren't there any public hearings regarding this proposed sewer rate increase?