City officials with the Department of Public Works are fervently working to repair a stinky situation in Baton Rouge.
Bryan Harmon, DPW deputy director, said the city is working to repair and renovate its sewer system.
Harmon said the plan — estimated to cost $1.3 billion once complete — addresses three problem areas: storage and treatment, rehabilitation and capacity improvement.
Michael Ellis, program manager for CH2M Hill, the group contracted to oversee construction, said the Environmental Protection Agency set a deadline of Jan. 1, 2015, for the project and if officials don’t meet it, the city-parish will be fined.
Ellis said he wasn’t sure of any areas around the University campus that would require construction, but he mentioned areas around Lee Drive as possibilities.
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Harmon said officials first began revamping the sewer system in 1988 by eliminating treatment facilities outside East Baton Rouge Parish. He said the EPA wanted city officials in 2001 to build new infrastructures, which would have required them to dig deep tunnels and disrupt traffic flow on numerous roadways.
Harmon said when East Baton Rouge Parish Mayor-President Kip Holden took office in 2005, his administration chose to rethink the plan.
Harmon said city officials met with sewage treatment experts and decided rehabilitation was a viable option because technology had changed since planning began in 2001.
Officials say the rehabilitation will cost less than the previous plan would have.
Ellis said officials plan to close the Central wastewater treatment plant and divert sewage to the south WWTP, which will save the city-parish an estimated $20 million in a 25-year period.
He said if the Central plant had been left open, it would have required $40 million to $60 million in renovations.
“There are definite benefits to closing it,” Ellis said.
Harmon said treatment plants are designed to handle sewage and a certain amount of rainwater, but a rain event like the ones Louisiana often sees could overwhelm the system.
In response, engineers are adding storage facilities to treatment plants to better cope with excess water or sewage.
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Harmon said rehabilitation will call for a small amount of new pipe to be constructed, as well as repairs made to existing pipe.
He said about 6 million feet of pipe will be videotaped to determine if any parts need repair.
“Not only will it allow us to see what’s inside, it’ll remove buildup in the pipes,” Harmon said. “We may find no broken parts, but they still needed to be cleaned.”
Harmon said officials didn’t think it was necessary to lay more pipe under the streets because of the amount that was already there.
“There’s about 10 million feet of pipe under the city,” Harmon said. “So we decided to fix what we already had instead of adding something new.”
William Daniel, acting director of the DPW, said it would have been impossible to determine the types of problems deep tunneling would have caused.
“No one had done deep tunneling here before,” he said. “It was almost experimental.”
Daniel said some residents have been focusing on the estimated $654 million it would have cost to dig deep tunnels, but that number was an initial estimate and the amount would have undoubtedly increased during construction.
Daniel said he wanted to make it clear that the sewage system renovation is unavoidable and being mandated by the EPA.
“If we had $1.3 billion just to spend however we wanted, we’d spend it on roads,” he said.
Mark LeBlanc, assistant Public Works director, said the plan is being funded through three sources.
LeBlanc said some funds come from a resident sewer-user fee, some come from sales tax and the rest come from sewer impact fees paid by builders and developers in the area.
Daniel said officials are working to comply with EPA regulations, but they’re also trying to improve life in Baton Rouge.
He said the plans include emergency generators — something the EPA doesn’t require — to keep plants and pumps running if the electricity goes out in the city.
 
 
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Contact Rachel Warren at [email protected]