Tag: City of Bloomington Utilities

Potential sludge now stirring for city-county cost sharing on waste-to-energy feasibility study

Monroe County solid waste district board meeting. From left: Geoff McKim, Dan Swafford, Isabel Piedmont-Smith, and Penny Githens.
Monroe County solid waste district board meeting (Jan. 12, 2023)
The aerial image of the city of Bloomington Blucher Poole waste water treatment plant northeast of Bloomington, dated April 2020, is from the Pictometry module of Monroe County’s property lookup system
The aerial image of the city of Bloomington Blucher Poole waste water treatment plant northeast of Bloomington, dated April 2020, is from the Pictometry module of Monroe County’s property lookup system

At Thursday’s regular meeting for the board of the Monroe County solid waste management district (MCSWMD), county commissioners Penny Githens and Julie Thomas raised concerns about the way that a waste-to-energy feasibility study has been approached so far.

An agreement to share the study’s $129,220 cost between MCSWMD and the city of Bloomington utilities (CBU) was adopted in the first part of 2022.

The study is being done by Energy Power Partners, and is supposed to be complete by the end of January or sometime in February, based on discussion at Thursday’s meeting.

EPP’s work is supposed to cover scenarios involving the generation of biogas by using anaerobic digestion of primary sludge from the Blucher Poole wastewater treatment plan, adding FOG (fats, oil and grease) and food waste as feedstock from various large waste generators, and the workability of private-sector partnerships for construction, operations and maintenance—among other possibilities.

But at Thursday’s meeting, Githens read aloud a statement that sketches out a number of objections, including the fact that the focus of the study has shifted from CBU’s Blucher Poole wastewater treatment plant to the Dillman Road facility. Continue reading “Potential sludge now stirring for city-county cost sharing on waste-to-energy feasibility study” →

Dropped cell phone snagged from storm drain by Bloomington utilities workers

City of Bloomington utilities worker Robert Jackson (Sept. 9, 2022).
From left: CBU workers Robert Jackson and Matthew Dunn; and Avenue on College resident Daniel Fritz (Sept. 9, 2022).
From left: CBU workers Robert Jackson and Matthew Dunn; Avenue on College resident Daniel Fritz (Sept. 9, 2022).
RE-ENACTMENT. Lying prone is Daniel Fritz. Standing is CBU worker Matthew Dunn (Sept. 9, 2022).
The red circle indicates the location of the storm drain. The image is from the Pictometry module of Monroe County’s online property lookup system.
The red circle indicates the location of the storm drain. The image is from the Pictometry module of Monroe County’s online property lookup system.

When The B Square approached Bloomington city hall late Friday afternoon, Bloomington resident Daniel Fritz was lying prone in the gutter of Morton Street.

Standing on either side of him were two yellow-vested city of Bloomington utilities (CBU) workers—Robert Jackson and Matthew Dunn. Fritz’s face was pressed right up against the grate of a storm drain.

After a couple of quick questions, the scene was sussed out.

Fritz was looking down into the void to see where his iPhone had been a minute before. Jackson and Dunn had just extracted it from the bottom of the drain. Continue reading “Dropped cell phone snagged from storm drain by Bloomington utilities workers” →

CBU director on Bloomington’s bad-tasting water: “One time is a fluke. Two times is a pattern.”

The April 2020 image of Bloomington’s water treatment plant is from the Pictometry module of the Monroe County online property lookup system.

“Water tastes fishy and like it’s straight out of a creek.” That’s from an Aug. 29, 2022 complaint logged in Bloomington’s uReport system.

The complaint is one of at least 14 such reports filed since Aug. 27.

It’s the second late summer in a row that Bloomington’s water has started tasting and smelling bad. The cause is elevated levels of blue-green algae in Lake Monroe, which is Bloomington’s drinking water source.

The current bad taste and odor is not a public health risk, according to city of Bloomington utilities.

The fact of increased blue-green algae levels is confirmed by Indiana’s department of environmental management (IDEM), which routinely samples levels in Lake Monroe. Currently the Paynetown and Fairfax state recreation area beaches are on an “advisory alert” level. That’s the second of four alert levels—low risk, advisory, caution, and closed.

The foul-tasting water was in years past a problem that recurred every year in late summer—fueled by dry, warm weather, which makes Lake Monroe ripe for increased blue-green algae concentrations. Continue reading “CBU director on Bloomington’s bad-tasting water: “One time is a fluke. Two times is a pattern.”” →

Bloomington utilities could be “coming home” to old site, as Miller Drive center is “bursting at the seams”

At the Aug. 1 meeting of Bloomington’s utilities service board (USB), utilities director Vic Kelson told USB members that the current Miller Drive service center is “bursting at the seams.”

That was not new information to the board—because city of Bloomington utilities already has a master plan for an alternate site where the service center could be moved. That’s the former Winston Thomas wastewater treatment plant property, which is located on Walnut Street, on the edge of the current city limits. It’s north of the Bloomington animal shelter.

It’s also a former EPA Superfund site. The master plan refers to that history: “Of course, the legacy of the site is not all roses. Environmental damage was done here.”

Kelson’s remarks served to brief the whole USB on a meeting of its property and planning committee, which had met earlier that day to review the master plan.

Kelson said he would like to move on a plan to relocate the service center to the Winston Thomas “as quickly as we can,” noting that it’s a complicated project. Kelson added, “Certainly the administration downtown would like us to move as quickly as it’s possible for us to make decisions about it.”

Deputy mayor Don Griffin attended the committee meeting, telling members “We support this project, or at least going forward with this project—100 percent.”

The Winston Thomas site is currently used for material storage—like manholes, culvert sections, and concrete pipe. It is also where construction debris taken from various Bloomington public works projects. Continue reading “Bloomington utilities could be “coming home” to old site, as Miller Drive center is “bursting at the seams”” →

Waste-to-energy study could see cost split: Bloomington utilities, Monroe County solid waste

The aerial image of the city of Bloomington Blucher Poole waste water treatment plant northeast of Bloomington, dated April 2020, is from the Pictometry module of Monroe County’s property lookup system.

Energy Power Partners has responded to a city of Bloomington utilities (CBU) request, with a proposal to conduct a $129,220 waste-to-energy feasibility study.

The study would cover scenarios involving the generation of biogas by using anaerobic digestion of primary sludge from the Blucher Poole wastewater treatment plan, adding FOG (fats, oil and grease) and food waste as feedstock from various large waste generators, and the workability of private-sector partnerships for construction, operations and maintenance—among other possibilities.

Last Thursday, a proposal to share the study’s cost between the Monroe County solid waste district and the city of Bloomington utilities was put off until next month by the governing bodies of both public agencies.

The memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the agencies will likely appear on an April meeting agenda for both of the governance groups. Continue reading “Waste-to-energy study could see cost split: Bloomington utilities, Monroe County solid waste” →

When it rains, it sewers: Monday’s overflow first in 8 months for Bloomington utilities

On Monday, city of Bloomington utilities (CBU) posted an alert on Facebook about a sanitary sewer overflow on Rogers Street between Charlie Avenue and Old State Road 37.

The red arrow indicates the location of the Charlie Avenue and Rogers Street sanitary sewer overflow. That location, like many plotted on the map, has seen more than one overflow in the last quarter century. The dots are partly transparent so that more than one incident is visible. Note: The size of the dots corresponds to the number of gallons estimated in the overflow, not the geographic extent of the overflow.

The Facebook posting advised: “Any individual who has come into direct contact with untreated sewage is advised to wash their hands and clothing thoroughly.”

What caused the overflow?

Based on a dataset maintained by the city of Bloomington, which goes back more than a quarter century, the most frequent cause of a sanitary sewer overflow is “precipitation.”

And the early-week sanitary sewer overflow at Rogers Street and Charlie Avenue squares up with the 2.15 inches of rain that fell on Bloomington on Monday. That’s the amount reported by the National Weather Service for the 24-hours ending at 7 p.m. on March 7, 2022.

What’s the connection between heavy rain and sanitary sewer overflows? And what is CBU doing about it, to prevent future sanitary sewer overflows? Continue reading “When it rains, it sewers: Monday’s overflow first in 8 months for Bloomington utilities” →

Midnight work on courthouse square part of routine meter upgrade by Bloomington utilities

When a city of Bloomington utilities (CBU) crew is out around midnight busting up a street with heavy equipment, it often means there’s been a water main break.

But on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, it was some routine updates that brought the CBU crew out to the west side of the courthouse square on College Avenue.

According to workers on the scene, confirmed on Wednesday morning by CBU communications manager Holly McLauchlin, Tuesday night’s project involved upgrading the water service to the building on that side of the square. Continue reading “Midnight work on courthouse square part of routine meter upgrade by Bloomington utilities” →

Miller-Showers Park ponds to get mapped as prep for possible dredging

Great blue heron at Miller-Showers Park on Nov. 12, 2021.
Ducks at Miller-Showers Park on Nov. 13, 2021
Miller-Showers Park looking east. The image is from the Pictometry module of Monroe County’s online property lookup system.

The mallard ducks and great blue heron that sometimes hang out at Miller-Showers Park, on the north side of Bloomington, could see some mechanical company sometime in the next week or so.

A company called Heartland Dredging will be pinging the depths of the waters, to chart out an underwater map of the sedimentation in the detention ponds.

The detention ponds at Miller-Showers Park are part of the city’s northside stormwater management infrastructure. Stormwater from more than 170 acres of the city drains into the Miller-Showers facility, and eventually farther downstream. Continue reading “Miller-Showers Park ponds to get mapped as prep for possible dredging” →

Reports of bad tasting Bloomington water continue, CBU says good taste will take a while to work its way back through pipes

The April 2020 image of Bloomington’s water treatment plant is from the Pictometry module of the Monroe County online property lookup system.

On Monday, reports of Bloomington’s tap water tasting and smelling bad continued to come into the city’s uReport system.

One example: “The smell and taste of the water has been absolutely disgusting for at least three weeks. Has the cause been found yet? It makes me nauseated to run the tap in my home.”

At Monday’s meeting of the utilities service board (USB), city of Bloomington utilities (CBU) director Vic Kelson told members the taste and odor issue had essentially been solved.  But it will take a while for the good tasting water to work its way through the distribution system, Kelson added.

A point of emphasis in communications from CBU over the last several days  has been that the bad taste and smell pose no danger to human health.

The cause of the dirt or fish taste, according to Kelson, is naturally occurring chemicals that are produced by algal blooms in Lake Monroe—geosmin and methyl-isoborneol (MIB).

Kelson said the long hot spell with no rain towards the end of the summer had led to a large algal bloom in Lake Monroe, the source of Bloomington’s drinking water. But results from an outside lab received Monday indicated the algal bloom has diminished dramatically since last week, Kelson said.

Water treatment plant staff had increased the feed rate of powdered activated carbon (PAC), which helps with the odor, Kelson said. The amount of additional PAC will be eased off as the quality of the water coming into the plant continues to improve, Kelson said. PAC started getting added routinely to the drinking water mix in 2017.

That doesn’t mean all of Bloomington’s water will start tasting and smelling better at the same time. Starting at the water treatment plant at Lake Monroe, for a drop of water to make its way through the pipes to the farthest point in the distribution system takes seven to 10 days, Kelson said. Continue reading “Reports of bad tasting Bloomington water continue, CBU says good taste will take a while to work its way back through pipes” →

Water rate increase: Bloomington reaches settlement “in principle” with IU, other rate case opponents

CBU drinking water station set up on 6th Street in connection with the Lotus Festival last weekend.

A planned water rate increase for Bloomington utilities (CBU) customers will likely be put in place as planned on Jan. 1, 2022.

That was the big news out of Monday’s regular meeting of Bloomington’s utilities service board (USB).

At Monday’s meeting, CBU director Vic Kelson told the board that a settlement in principle had been reached last week with all the interveners in the case, which include Indiana University and Washington Township Water Authority.

Kelson told the USB he could not discuss any details, but the filing of the settlement with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC) is supposed to be done by Oct. 6, with a hearing set for Oct. 22.

The case for increased water rates is currently going through the IURC review process, after the Bloomington city council’s mid-March approval  of the higher rates, which are to be phased in, with increases in 2022 and 2024.

Residential CBU customers will pay a total of 22 percent more over the course of four years.

Other customers like Indiana University, will see higher increases under the proposal, around double what residential customers will see.

The 22-percent increase brings the residential customer rate to $4.54 for every 1,000 gallons. Continue reading “Water rate increase: Bloomington reaches settlement “in principle” with IU, other rate case opponents” →