PENINSULA WASTEWATER ADVISORY COMMITTEE REPORT, NOVEMBER 2015
In the July, 2015 YCN, the Village of Peninsula Planning Commission announced that it had created the Wastewater Advisory Committee for the purpose of understanding current wastewater treatment in the Village, evaluating wastewater treatment options, and making recommendations to the Planning Commission. The Committee has held public meetings every two weeks since its inception. Members of the Committee have met with the Ohio EPA and the Summit County Division of Environmental Health. The Committee also visited the Villages of Christiansburg (near Springfield, Ohio) and Coolville (near Athens, Ohio). Both villages are approximately the same size as Peninsula and are nearing completion of wastewater collection and processing systems. In both villages, the village councils decided to proactively install wastewater systems rather than wait for the Ohio EPA to order such installation. Proactive installation gave the villages more flexibility to plan a system that best fit their needs and to seek funding sources to offset the cost of the new systems.
The planning process for Christiansburg and Coolville were similar. Both villages advertised for qualified environmental and engineering consulting firms to provide services for the planning, design, and construction of wastewater collection and treatment systems. Among the selection criteria established by the villages were the consultant’s experience with small communities and ability to locate and qualify the village for various government aid programs. Approximately half the cost of the new wastewater systems was paid by government aid programs which the consultants obtained for the villages. The other half was paid with government zero interest or low interest loans.
Both Christiansburg and Coolville selected a processing system designed and manufactured by ORENCO. ORENCO’s system is modular and easily scalable to accommodate different size communities. Coolville took advantage of this feature by creating three separate processing plants to service three different areas. Like Peninsula, Coolville is hilly and dividing the village into three areas allowed Coolville to accommodate three different drainage areas.
On November 19, members of the Committee visited the McFarlane Creek Sewage Processing Facility operated by Geauga County to view the installation of a new membrane facility used for sewage processing and water clarification. Besides viewing the new membrane processing facility, the members had a very good conversation with Geauga County’s Sanitary Engineer about different processing systems and the steps required to select a sewage processing system.
The Committee will present its findings and recommendations to the Planning Commission on November 24. That meeting is open to the public. Copies of the presentation can be obtained by contacting Bill Clifton at the phone and email addresses listed below.
All meetings of the Wastewater Advisory Committee are open to the public and the public’s participation is welcomed and encouraged. The date, time, and location of the meetings are posted by the Village. If you cannot attend the meeting, please submit your questions to the Committee by calling Bill Clifton at 330-657-4032 or emailing him at cliftowh@hotmail.com.