BATAVIA, Ohio – After receiving extensive feedback from residents of the Village of Newtonsville, Clermont County Commissioners approved a contract on June 25 for the redesign for the village’s sewer and wastewater treatment project. CH2M Engineers, Inc., will redesign the system to provide conventional gravity sewers to all properties that will benefit from the project.
Currently, properties in the Village of Newtonsville have septic systems. In October 2012, residents were notified by Clermont Public Health that a significant number of homes had failing septic systems, and sewage created a health risk. At that time, Public Health recommended public sewer to serve the residents in the project area.
Since then, the Clermont County Water Resources Department has completed extensive engineering fieldwork and project design. A number of public information meetings have been held including a Public Hearing on Sept. 25, 2017, and the fourth Public Informational Meeting on March 13, 2018.
At the March meeting, a majority of the property owners who spoke indicated their support for a full gravity collection system, and not the hybrid collection system that had been presented to them previously. The hybrid collection system included a combination of conventional gravity sewers and STEP (Septic Tank Effluent Pump) to convey wastewater to the proposed wastewater treatment facility.
In surveys conducted following the Public Hearing, a total of 59% of the benefitted property owners responded, and of those a majority supported proceeding with the project. Of that majority, most supported a redesign to a full conventional gravity collection system to serve all properties in the project area.
In a letter sent to residents on June 26, Chris Rowland, P.E., Assistant Sanitary Engineer, noted that the change to a full gravity system would increase the minimum assessment from $190 per front foot of property to $234 per front foot.
The design is scheduled to be completed this fall, and a public hearing is likely to be scheduled in January 2019. Construction could start in early 2020, with sewer connections starting in the spring of 2021.
The Water Resources Department has secured $3 million in grants for this project, and is contributing $1.1 million from wastewater capital improvement funds.
The original project design served approximately 145 property owners and 230 parcels of land in and around the Village of Newtonsville. The exact number of properties to be added as a result of the new design is to be determined.
The redesign contract with CH2M Engineers, Inc., is for $248,457. More information on the project can be found here: https://bit.ly/2N9UNna
