Fuel from Marathon station leaks into Bloomington’s sewers, officials work to get plant back online

Overview map

Location of Marathon Station where gasoline leak originated.

Dillman Road wastewater treatment facility. The triangular shaped basin in the north corner of the map is the equalization basin.

Marathon Station at 3rd Street and Patterson Drive

If Bloomington residents smell gasoline inside their homes, they should ventilate the area by opening windows and avoid an open flame.

That’s the advice in a news release from the city of Bloomington issued in the early morning hours of Tuesday. According to the news release residents who have concerns can call (812) 269-6052.

Prompting the advice was a gasoline leak from the Marathon gas station at the southeast corner of 3rd Street and Patterson Drive.

Because the gasoline apparently made its way into the sanitary sewer system, the news release considered the possibility that gasoline fumes might intrude into people’s homes.

According to the news release, there is “currently no risk to residents and no cause for alarm.”

[Updated at 5:14 p.m. on Nov. 1, 2022: The Dillman Road wastewater treatment plant has been back online for a while now.] Continue reading “Fuel from Marathon station leaks into Bloomington’s sewers, officials work to get plant back online” →

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” →

2008 versus 2021: Last weekend’s Kirkwood flooding not due to clogged storm drains, CBU reports

Looking south a the intersection of Kirkwood Avenue and Lincoln Street, Saturday, June 19, 2021.

bordered ANNOTATED REVISED R OUT plot 2-day IU-B rainfall data WITH ANNOTATIONS

When waist-deep water filled the intersection of Dunn Street and Kirkwood Avenue last weekend, it reminded some Bloomington residents of similar flooding in June of 2008.

In 2008, the city of Bloomington utilities (CBU) blamed the high water in part on clogged storm drains. A June 10, 2008 news account from the Herald-Times about the Kirkwood floods stated, “Street inlets clogged with debris were a culprit, blocking water from draining into the system where it belongs, rather than sloshing on the streets.”

That was not the case for last weekend’s flooding, according to CBU’s director of transmission and distribution Brandon Prince.

At the meeting of the utilities service board on Wednesday, chair Jean Capler asked specifically about clogged storm drains as a contributing factor to last weekend’s flooding.

Prince told the board CBU had around 10 people out in the field on Saturday and Sunday. “Primarily, we really didn’t see a clog issue,” he said.

When the water started to recede, blocked drains became “a bit of an issue,” Prince said. That meant CBU crews did clean a lot of inlets in those two days, Prince said, adding that most of the inlet clearing came on Sunday.

Responding to Capler’s query, Prince said, “To answer your question,…we really can’t see how clogged inlets really contributed to the problem.” Continue reading “2008 versus 2021: Last weekend’s Kirkwood flooding not due to clogged storm drains, CBU reports” →

Post-flood recovery: Monday signing of local disaster declaration part of Monroe County’s two-pronged approach to aid, officials caution against high hopes

People’s Park gathering on June 21, 2021.

Talisha Coppock, executive director at Downtown Bloomington Inc.

From left: Bloomington public works director Adam Wason; Bloomington fire chief Jason Moore. People’s Park gathering on June 21, 2021

Monroe County’s emergency management director Allison Moore. Standing behind Moore is Jesse Minnick, south region liaison for Indiana Department of Homeland Security.

Bloomington’s deputy mayor Don Griffin and Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce executive director Erin Predmore.

From left: Bloomington director of economic and sustainable development Alex Crowley; City of Bloomington Utilities director Vic Kelson.

Bob Costello, owner of Village Deli.

People’s Park June 21, 2021.

On Monday, Monroe County board of commissioners president Julie Thomas signed a declaration of local disaster, because of weekend flooding that hit downtown Bloomington and other areas of the county.

The disaster declaration will appear for ratification on the three-member board’s regular meeting agenda on Wednesday.

A declaration of local disaster, under Indiana Code 10-14-3-29, will “activate the response and recovery aspects of all applicable local or interjurisdictional disaster emergency plans.”

Such a declaration could also make homeowners and business owners alike eligible for reimbursement of uninsured flood damages by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

But the county’s emergency manager, Allison Moore, told a gathering of about 25 business and nonprofit leaders on Monday morning that nothing is guaranteed to be reimbursed.

Still, a disaster declaration would “help our cause,” Moore said, in connection with another approach the county is taking. The second approach is to ask the federal Small Business Administration (SBA) for low-interest loan assistance. Continue reading “Post-flood recovery: Monday signing of local disaster declaration part of Monroe County’s two-pronged approach to aid, officials caution against high hopes” →

Opinion: Bloomington should consider a different approach to stormwater revenue

At its regular meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 20, the Bloomington City Council will consider “adjusting stormwater fees.” It’s the second reading of a change to the city’s ordinance on the “stormwater utility.”

Manhole rain — The manhole cover near Indiana Avenue and 6th Street on Feb. 7, 2019.

Of course, a “fee adjustment” generally means an increase of the fee.

And Bloomington’s proposed adjustment is a more than doubling of the monthly fee paid by single-family residential (SFR) customers—implemented in two phases over six months. The first bump, to $4.32 per month, would go into effect about four months from now, on July 1, 2019. Six months after that, on Jan. 1, 2020, the rate would go up to $5.95 per month.

More than a decade and a half has gone by since the rate was increased. (It was Ordinance 03-24, enacted in 2003, that put the current rate into effect, according to the city’s online municipal code.)

Even as a recent arrival in Bloomington, I recognize that the city’s stormwater infrastructure needs some improvement. On Feb. 7, when around 3 inches of rain fell, I walked from 6th Street near the courthouse square to the Indiana University Credit Union near the IU football stadium. Continue reading “Opinion: Bloomington should consider a different approach to stormwater revenue” →