A grant that will help fund a two-mile stretch of new sewer interceptor on Bloomington-Normal’s west side is part of a much larger project that may link some small towns in McLean County to the Twin Cities' sewage treatment system.
WGLT recently reported on the $5 million state award that will help pay to handle the cumulative sewage flow of many smaller sewer lines from houses and businesses between Oakland Avenue in Bloomington north to College Avenue in Normal.
Bloomington-Normal Water Reclamation District [BNWRD] Director Tim Ervin said the Northwest Sewer Interceptor Project is the first new interceptor to prevent sewage from going into creeks the district has installed since the early 2000s. The $7.5 million phase one extends from BNWRD’s treatment plant north to College Avenue.
There has been some social media chatter speculating the project is intended to serve development of a data center. But the interceptor was being planned long before data centers entered the public conversation. Ervin noted the project addresses both current and future needs.
“The district has an existing interceptor sewer that was in the lower part of west Bloomington that was constructed in the 1960s. As development has happened ... we're seeing trends that show this interceptor is near its capacity,” said Ervin.
He said the community anticipates more west side development, but that could be houses and commercial structures as well as industrial growth.
“We're usually one of the last to find out about the type of development, but at least it'll give the opportunity for us to be able to take sewage from this area and even north Normal and bring [it] to our facility, which accomplishes our overall mission of protecting public health and protecting the environment,” said Ervin.
Regionalization
And the scope of the initiative is bigger than any single community development. Eventually, there will be three phases to the interceptor project.
“It's going to go into north Normal, up the I-39 corridor with the ability to connect the village of Hudson,” said Ervin.
He said it has not been determined how much Hudson residents would pay. He hoped the actual connection can be funded by infrastructure grants. Regular sewer rates also would apply.
He said BNWRD eventually may want to connect Towanda and even Colfax to the district's services.
“One of the growing trends you're seeing in wastewater is regionalization," said Ervin. "You are seeing large plants reach out to neighboring communities and neighborhoods where we actually will start bringing the sewage from these areas to our facilities.”
Regionalization has come in increments.
Back in the 2000s, BNWRD worked to connect sewage from the Village of Downs to the district’s southeast treatment facility. A more recent example is the Clearview Sanitary District in south Bloomington. BNWRD is in the final stages of connecting that subdivision to the network.
“The current wastewater treatment in this section of the community [Clearview] is done through treatment lagoons. These lagoons were put in after World War II. They're not as efficient as they once were,” said Ervin. “We can remove additional contaminants and provide dependable wastewater treatment to these facilities.”
The eventual plan is to remediate the soil at the former Clearview lagoons, freeing up that land for other purposes.
Even a tiny far east side subdivision nestled between Bloomington city boundaries and the Central Illinois Regional Airport may get a connection.
Congressman Darin LaHood has said he will seek earmark money to extend sewers to Colonial Meadows. That cluster of homes also subsists on substandard well water, though the City of Bloomington has said it has no plans to remedy that via annexation or extending services.
The city is willing to sell city water to the subdivision, but that requires a viable business entity to purchase it.
Rebuilding treatment facilities
Meanwhile, BNWRD continues its massive modernization project involving infrastructure that was built more than a century ago.
At the southeast plant, the agency is advancing a $40 million project to meet new water quality standards and add treatment capacity. The estimated completion date for that is in 2027.
“Which will be able to reduce the amount of phosphorus our southeast wastewater plant is releasing into Little Kickapoo Stream at the West plant,” said Ervin. “At the West plant, we're totally rebuilding the process.”
He said the southeast plant project is a single unit. Improvements at the west plant will come in phases because the district can’t stop treating sewage during construction.
Watershed protection
One part of BNWRD’s shift in emphasis to regionalization is greater attention to creeks and watershed protection.
A lot of the underground sewer lines the district manages run alongside Sugar Creek, the west branch of Sugar Creek, and Little Kickapoo Creek. Those lines are being modernized, for example on the creek bank near the Auto Zone in Normal. Over the past few years, the district also has begun buying additional property along the creeks.
“We're hoping to create more green infrastructure. We're hoping to use native plants to help filter storm runoff and create an atmosphere that not only protects the creek and the ecosystems, but helps filter phosphorus and nitrogen out of our water sources,” said Ervin, adding it’s a lot easier to remove phosphorus via natural filtering than it is through treatment.
“We not only see high levels of phosphorus below our outfalls where we release our effluent into the creek, but we're seeing it above the creek. This derives not only from fertilizer runoff, but from general erosion along the creek, so it can make a huge difference,” said Ervin.
He said green infrastructure also can increase the amount of recreational space in the community.
“It can help with the overall transportation within the community, but it's just cheaper long term for the taxpayers,” said Ervin.
Some of that work already has made a difference. Creek monitoring in recent years shows rising fish populations in area creeks.
“It's interesting. I can tell you, we're finding gars, which are the top of the fish species, so there's a lot more smaller fish to eat,” said Ervin.
Currently, BNWRD treats nearly 20 million gallons of sewage per day and maintains about 40 miles of sewer interceptors.
