The firm that studied a possible collaboration between two sewer districts isn’t giving “recommendations,” but it did give “findings” that suggest that two plants would be better than one to serve the Bean Blossom-Helmsburg-Lake Lemon area.
Ethel Morgan of HomeTown Engineering gave a summary of her 194-page “Preliminary Engineering Report for the Regionalization Assistance Program” on March 10 before the Brown County Regional Sewer District and Helmsburg Regional Sewer District boards, as well as about 20 other people, many from the Lake Lemon and Helmsburg areas.
Morgan was hired with grant money “to determine the most economical way to provide sanitary sewage service to populations in and around these areas, now and in the future.” Bill Harkins, a representative of that granting agency, the Indiana Finance Authority, also attended this presentation.
Morgan studied seven different options or combinations of options to provide sewer service to the Bean Blossom and Trevlac/Lake Lemon areas. Helmsburg already has sewer service, but its plant is underutilized and its customers’ bills are high. Getting sewer service to Bean Blossom has been in development for about 20 years.
Morgan told the group that “the most cost-effective solution is for there to be a regional plant in Bean Blossom and another regional plant built in Trevlac.” That’s a combination of two options in her study, “T1” and “BB2.”
T1 was “build a new plant in the Trevlac area to treat all flows except the Bean Blossom Headwaters watershed, and abandon the current Helmsburg plant.”
BB2 was “build a new plant in Bean Blossom to treat only the flows in the Bean Blossom Headwaters watershed.”
The “Bean Blossom Headwaters watershed” includes homes in Bean Blossom, the Bean Blossom Trailer Park, Bill Monroe Memorial Music Park, Brownie’s restaurant, the Freeman Ridge neighborhood, Little Fox Lake and Woodland Lake (276 customer equivalents). That’s the same area that the Brown County Regional Sewer District was planning to serve with a stand-alone plant, possibly built at the base of Bean Blossom hill off State Road 135 North.
Morgan estimated the cost of these two options (T1 and BB2) at $25,367,000, total, over 20 years. “When bids come in, it could be totally different,” Morgan noted. She estimated an additional $235,000 as annual costs to run, maintain and replace the systems as needed.
The combination of options T2 and BB2 (a Trevlac regional plant, a Bean Blossom local plant, and leaving Helmsburg as-is) also was one of the cheaper alternatives, at $23,897,100 total capital cost, over 20 years, plus $220,000 annual operating, repairs and maintenance costs.
“The Helmsburg plant is nearing the end of its useful life, with approximately 10 years remaining,” the study said. “The Helmsburg RSD should consider a regional option when it is ready to replace its plant.”
“So what it comes down to, in Brown County, looking at those areas, is two plants makes more sense than one plant treating everything,” Morgan said.
The Brown County RSD and Helmsburg RSD boards were both present (minus Helmsburg member Jenny Austin) to hear Morgan’s summary, but neither board took any votes based on the data. The Brown County RSD has been proceeding on a path to build its own wastewater treatment plant to serve the Bean Blossom area.
GUEST OPINION: Delay warranted on Bean Blossom sewer project
It’s unknown what the monthly sewer bill would be in either of those scenarios, as that would depend on the funding sources and how much grant money the project(s) would get.
Brown County RSD member Clint Studabaker said that they’d like the Bean Blossom project to be “bought down” to a bill in the range of $65 to $75 per month. Much more than that, and it’s not feasible.
Asking for help
A small group of Lake Lemon homeowners attended the March 10 meeting and made a presentation of their own.
Frank Van Overmeiren told the group that when the lake level rises — like it did by 2 feet after a lot of rain in February — it floods more than 200 septic systems around the lake, which then discharge directly into the lake.
A group of at least 70 homeowners, the Lake Lemon Environmental Cooperative, are wanting sewers, Van Overmeiren said. They want to request grant funding to help cover the approximately $5 million cost to build the plant and get it running. But because the Brown County Regional Sewer District is in charge of all area in the county that does not currently have sewers, the Lake Lemon group needs the sewer district’s support to apply for funding.
“We don’t want to wait until the Bean Blossom project is done. We want a parallel path,” he said.
Van Overmeiren asked for a partnership. The Lake Lemon area — on the Brown County and Monroe County sides of the lake — has close to 700 “user units” that could be on sewer, he said. That includes a trailer park of about 100 units that’s a “known user polluter,” he said.
The group has the support of the city of Bloomington because it owns the lake, which serves as a backup water source for the city, Van Overmeiren said. The city has offered the group a $1 lease for 50 years on property it owns on the lake where the plant could go.
Initially, the plant would serve the Brown County side of the lake, but the project could be expanded to serve more of Trevlac and the Monroe County side of the lake later.
Studabaker planned to get together with Van Overmeiren and fellow Lake Lemon property owner Russ Herndon to set up a public meeting with the Lake Lemon homeowners. That meeting hasn’t happened yet; the COVID-19 restrictions began to happen soon after.
“We don’t want to recreate the wheel,” Van Overmeiren said. “We’d rather be absorbed by the wheel that’s already there, as long as the wheel’s going to go down our path.
“If not, let us know, and we’ll drive down the path,” he said. “We need it. We need it bad.”
