PEORIA, Ill. — The City of Peoria on Thursday released a long-range plan that aims gradually to eliminate its use of combined sewer overflow.
The $109 million plan aims to fully reduce CSO by Dec. 31, 2039.
The implementation of the plan comes by mandate of the Environmental Protection Agency in connection with the Clean Water Act.
The act states municipalities cannot drain wastewater into federal waters without a permit. While Peoria has for years maintained this permit, the EPA has ordered the city to develop a plan to drain these waters elsewhere.
City Manager Patrick Urich said it’s been “a long time coming,” as the city has been negotiating for more than 14 years with the EPA.
“We’re pleased to get to this point. We have a consent decree from the federal government that will be presented to both the city council and to the sanitary district’s board of trustees that will go next week,” he said.
A special city council meeting was scheduled for Tuesday at noon to approve the decree.
Urich estimated those who pay sewage bills inside the City of Peoria will start an annual increase on their bills in 2023, starting at $5.50, and going up incrementally.
Urich explained this step is a natural progression in the building of a greener infrastructure, which the city has already begun doing.
Examples of this, he said, include a well farm that was installed at Voris Field, where a stormwater park was being constructed.
“We’re conveying stormwater into that farm to be able to use that to grow plants we can utilize,” he said.
A pilot project was conducted along Adams St., from Pecan to Persimmon, in which stormwater bioswales were installed, which conveys water into soils.
There is a rain garden at Peoria Public Works, while bridge infields at the base of the MacArthur Bridge were in the works, and a stormwater project was being considered as part of the Western Ave. redesign, he said.
“We’re using the infrastructure we see above ground instead of spending literally a half a billion dollars to put something underground,” he said.
The project would get underway in 2022, with 20% of CSO reduced by 2024, 35% by 2027, 50% by 2030, 70% by 2034, and 100% by 2039.
