Water gushes from sewer drains at 3rd and Princeton, Sept. 13
by Karl Weber
hy store sewage in Veeck Park?
Briefly stated, the large sewer line coming from the Spinning Wheel pumping station has insufficient capacity to handle present flows from the north side of Ogden Ave. The New Hinsdale Club Development will add significantly to this stream. In order to provide relief, the Village is planning to disconnect Hinsdale’s overflow lines from the Spinning Wheel line and discharge all village overflows into Flagg Creek instead.
Executive Summary:
25% of Hinsdale’s sewers carry storm water together with sewer wastewater to the Flagg Creek Water Reclamation District (FCWRD) treatment plant. This is the combined sewer that Hinsdale is being told to separate.
FCWRD says it can no longer process the amount of rainwater that Hinsdale’s sewers send to their plant during a rain event.
FCWRD has filed a lawsuit against the Village of Hinsdale, as well as IDOT and DuDOT who discharge large amounts of storm water into the sanitary sewer system.
FCWRD has also filed suit against the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Cook County because it is processing only a small portion of the wastewater from the Cook County part of Hinsdale.
The Village of Clarendon Hills also releases storm water and sanitary waste into the system through a sewer line that runs through Hinsdale along Hinsdale Ave. In addition, a very significant volume comes as a mixed stream of sanitary and storm run-off from the Spinning Wheel Pumping Station located on the North Side of Ogden Ave at I- 294 and contains flows from municipalities that lie north of Hinsdale.
The lawsuit is proceeding at a glacial pace as is normal when municipalities and government agencies are involved.
Both FCWRD and The Village of Hinsdale have hired consultants to assess the problem and find a solution. Together, the output of these three firms totals about 300 pages of text, data and diagrams. The consultants hired by FCWRD and Hinsdale do not agree on all points but they all agree that during wet weather, the large line coming from the Spinning Wheel pumping station called the Spinning Wheel Interceptor is not able to handle the flow from the areas north of Ogden including towns north of Hinsdale. This causes the sewer system to overflow in areas both north and south of the pumping station.
Hinsdale proper has one 42-inch line running to the sewage plant. This line also carries flows from Clarendon Hills. When a storm event fills that line, the excess is carried by Hinsdale’s 42 inch and 48 inch over-flow lines to the Spinning Wheel Interceptor line. When that interceptor is not able to handle all the overflow from the village, Hinsdale’s overflow lines dump the excess into Flagg Creek.
FCWRD has no way to force IDOT or DuDOT to disconnect their storm water run-off
From 55th, 59th and 63rd Streets from its system, except through the courts.
MWRD of Cook County, which is gigantic in both size and clout, cannot be forced to accept the discharge from the Cook County part of Hinsdale except through a court order even though it charges residents, in the Cook County portion of Hinsdale, a fee for processing their sewage.
Compared to the other entities in this litigation, Hinsdale is in a uniquely difficult position. The elected Village leadership has approved a very dense office development, called the Hinsdale Club, on the north side of Ogden Ave at I-294 which will replace the present office park that is much less dense. In fact construction has already begun. The problem is that the sewer line from that development is the Spinning Wheel Interceptor Line which is already over capacity. It almost beggars credulity that our village officials and the developer were oblivious to the lack of sewer capacity needed to service this very large development. Unless Hinsdale decides to halt this development, they need to find a quick fix because the lawsuit will take a long time to bring about a resolution.
Despite the fact that the the outcome of lawsuit is still pending, Hinsdale has agreed to cut the 48 inch overflow line to the Spinning Wheel Interceptor as well as the 42 inch overflow line, leaving only one path (the 42 inch main line shared with Clarendon Hills), to the sewage plant. The 42 inch overflow line will then divert the initial first flush of a million gallons of a rainstorm to the new storage tank in Veeck Park. Everything else, up to 10 million gallons and more, will be treated which chlorine and will be allowed to dump into Flagg Creek. In the past, Flagg Creek has been used as a last resort when the 2 overflow lines and the Spinning Wheel interceptor have been unable to handle any more flow. With our two overflow lines disconnected, Flagg Creek will become Hinsdale’s only “sewer overflow line.”
In addition, Hinsdale has also agreed to permit a restrictor in its only remaining line to the treatment plant that will allow no more that 5,600 gallons per minute to pass through. This means that our only sewer line would never allow more than 8 million gallons per day to reach the plant. In fact it would never come close to that volume unless we had a steady rain for 24 hours.
In a rain event, according to law, the FCWRD is supposed to handle at least 10 times our dry weather flow. The village consultant, Huff and Huff, estimates that flow to be 20 million gallons per day and not 8 million gallons that the restrictor will allow. The Village has also agreed to separate 30 % of its combined sewers into separate storm sewers and sanitary sewers over then next twelve years.
Although FCWRD approves of these measures, they have given Hinsdale no assurance that if it does all these things that the FCWRD will drop its suit against the Village. In fact FCWRD may ask for even more concessions. Bill Seith and his law firm are representing the Village in these negotiations.
The upshot of all this is that Hinsdale’s sewage discharge will exceed its permitted 4 allowed overflows each year by a considerable margin and will pay large fines to the State of Illinois for at least the next 12 years, as well as paying the cost of operating the facility at Veeck Park. All this despite having spent over $15 million tax dollars on an “expedited solution.”
This is not a fair deal for the taxpayers of Hinsdale. All entities that contribute storm water to this sanitary system should contribute to the solution. At present, it will cost Hinsdale taxpayers far more to modify its sewer system and build and operate the Veeck Park facility than the Hinsdale Club and other developments will generate in tax revenues for the village over many years. If the developers want an expedited solution, they too should contribute to solving the problem. One consultant has suggested a storage tank at the Hinsdale Club Development, north of Ogden (above which a parking lot can be built) as an immediate solution, instead of storing sewage in a tank at Veeck Park.
You can help if you act quickly by contacting our village trustees:<http://www.villageofhinsdale.org/>
To read more, go to Hinsdale Talks: <http://www.hinsdaletalks.com/>