John Magsam of Jones & Henry Engineers gives a progress update at the Turkey Creek Regional Sewer District meeting Monday, April 15. The meeting began with a public hearing on planned sewer and water improvements. The public comment window is still open until Monday, April 22. Photo by Lilli Dwyer.

By Lilli Dwyer
InkFree News

CROMWELL — The Turkey Creek Regional Sewer District held a public hearing on the preliminary engineering reports for its sewer and water improvements Monday, April 15.

The district plans to expand plant capacity and improve overall treatment and distribution of water and wastewater.

The plant’s current design capacity is 0.37 million, or 370,000 gallons per day, with a peak capacity of 2.3 million gallons per day. On annual average, the plant operates at 90% of its design capacity.

The planned expansion will take capacity up to 0.5 million, or 500,000, gallons per day.

In service of this, the district has already begun replacing old rotors and installing new ones for better aeration at the plant for an estimated cost of $739,902.

Other proposed plans for wastewater treatment and distribution include:

• Adding septic elimination improvements in the Enchanted Hills area for an estimated cost of $6,540,000.

• Adding septic elimination improvements in the Papakeechie No. 5 area for an estimated cost of $900,000.

• Replacement of asbestos cement pipe at the A1A lift station.

Proposed plans for water treatment and distribution include:

• New chemical feed pumps, flow meters and pressure reducing valve for oxidizing iron and manganese at an estimated cost of $2,694,000.

• Replacement of the Enchanted Hills and Fascination Place distribution system with 6-inch or 8-inch water mains, to provide fire flow, or water for fire protection purposes, at an estimated cost of $6,464,000.

• Adding a 75,000 gallon water tower in the Enchanted Hills area to significantly increase fire flow availability at an estimated cost of $1,927,000.

Superintendent Tim Woodward emphasized that these are proposed plans, contingent on grant funding from the State Revolving Fund.

“The only thing I know we really have to do is the rotors,” he said.

Both PERs have been submitted to the SRF. The district should get their results in July or August.

A change in water rates was mentioned at March’s meeting. What impact these projects might have on water rates will be determined once the district knows how much SRF funding they will receive and a rate study is done.

No members of the public came forward at the hearing, but the public comment window is still open until Monday, April 22. Turkey Creek customers can contact the office at (260) 856-4341 or [email protected] with their questions and comments.

The full PERs are also available to read on tcrsd.com.

In other business, John Magsam of Jones & Henry Engineers gave a brief progress update.

Mason Engineering is still working on rotors at the plant as part of the planned improvements. The work is on schedule and should be finished by the end of April.

Information on the South Shore project is still pending. The gas line at Treasure Island Marina was moved from the district’s easement, so no further action is required.

Woodward also informed the board that all four clarifiers and both ditches at the plant will be in service by the end of April and ready for the summer season.

Annual generator maintenance at the plant has been scheduled for the first week of May. The 22 generators will take about two weeks to service.

All siphon lines will be cleaned before Memorial Day weekend.

Woodward will be sending a sample from the plant to Ace Laboratories in Indianapolis to check for the pollutant PFOS. The cost of PFOS removal is something of a concern for the district.

“You can’t charge people a $150 water bill, they’re not gonna pay it. … We’ll find out very shortly if it’s gonna be a problem for us,” Woodward said.

The next regular Turkey Creek Regional Sewer District meeting will be Monday, May 20.