**COMBINED SEWER EMERGENCY BYPASS DISCHARGE NOTIFICATION**
October 12, 2022 Update
The City of East Chicago’s publically–owned treatment works (POTW) collects and treats wastewater generated by approximately 5,440 residential, 200 public/government, 1,265 commercial and small, unpermitted industrial, and 26 permitted industrial accounts. Year to date, the POTW influent has averaged 12.4 million gallons per day. On Wednesday morning September 29, 2022, a catastrophic event occurred wherein a 42” diameter forcemain carrying approximately 80% of the plants daily influent flow of wastewater from our Alder Street lift station collapsed resulting in the flooding of 152nd Street and Indianapolis Boulevard. Immediate steps taken by the City included the pumping of the wastewater from the broken forcemain location into the POTW. Additionally, the sanitary pumps at the Alder lift station were shut off such that any wastewater flow from the Alder lift station was pumped via storm pumps in to the Grand Calumet River at our Combined Sewer Overflow outfall location CSO #003 located on the west side of the Cline Avenue frontage road (location illustrated below).
The wastewater at CSO #003 is being discharged at an estimated 8 to 10 million gallons per day. This discharge will continue until the City and its contractors are able to install line stops at the upstream and downstream section of broken forcemain and install temporary bypass piping to restore the connection of the forcemain to the POTW. Once the bypass piping is installed, the sanitary pumps at Alder lift station will be turned on and the emergency bypass discharge to the Grand Calumet will cease. During this time, the City is conducting daily inspections of outfall discharge and has implemented a daily sampling program which includes the collection of water samples from the Grand Calumet River at the outfall location as well as locations upstream and downstream of the outfall.
The City of East Chicago recommends that individuals avoid direct contact with water in the Grand Calumet River within 1000 yards of the CSO #003 outfall location until this emergency bypass release has been terminated and the river conditions are returned to pre-emergency conditions. Consumption of, or direct contact with, waste contaminated water could make you ill.
The bypass piping installation was completed on Monday, October 10, 2022. Upon completion, the sanitary pumps at the Alder lift station were turned on at approximately 2:00 PM and began pumping the wastewater to the POTW, thereby ceasing the emergency bypass discharge to the Grand Calumet River. Efforts are continuing to complete the repairs to the broken section of forcemain. These repairs consist of replacing the broken section of broken 42” reinforced concrete pipe with a section of 42” ductile iron pipe. The repairs are estimated to take up to two weeks’ time to complete, contingent upon weather and availability of necessary materials to complete the repair.
The final analytical results from the monitoring of conditions at the Grand Calumet River are being received. The analytical reports will be posted on the city’s website as they are received. Copies of the reports will also be available for review at the Sanitary District office located at 5201 Indianapolis Boulevard during normal business hours 7:00 – 3:00.
If you have any questions, please contact the East Chicago Sanitary District at 219-391-8466.
To download a PDF of the above notice Click Here.
Water Sample Test Results: