The City of Goshen, Indiana recently received the Small Facility Award from the Indiana Water Environment Association (IWEA).

The award was recently presented at IWEA's annual conference in Indianapolis. Pictured here are personnel from the City of Goshen and Donohue, the design engineer (from left to right): Front Row: Emily Wehmeyer, PE, Design Engineer (Donohue); Steve Gress, PE, Design Project Manager (Donohue); Dustin Sailor, PE, City Utilities Engineer (Goshen); and Jim Kerezman, WWTP Superintendent (Goshen). The back row includes: Jim Miller, Construction Project Manager (Donohue); Dustin Kehr, Operator (Goshen); and Larry Keil, Operator (Goshen).

The City of Goshen’s Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Abatement Projects allowed the City to meet the majority of their Long Term Control Plan requirements.

The following six projects were included:

• CSO Detention Facility
• Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) CSO Diversion Pump Station
• CSO 002 River Crossing
• 90-Inch CSO Trunk Line Sewer
• Wastewater and Water SCADA Project
• Digester Improvements Project

The approach that the City of Goshen took in capturing and treating their CSOs in one location is one of the first of its kind in the state. This approach to meet their Long Term Control Plan was designed using Indiana Department of Environmental Management’s (IDEM) Non-Rule Policy Water-016.

The project provides detention of combined sewer overflows from storms less than 1-year, 1-hour, while providing primary treatment and disinfection for combined sewer overflows from a 10-year, 1-hour storm or larger. The CSO Abatement Projects were designed to reduce the number of CSO events to the Elkhart River from 28 to 2 or less per year.

Although the Combined Sewer (CS) Detention Facility is impressive, this project also featured 3,150 linear feet of 90-inch large diameter reinforced concrete pipe installed within the collection system. This pipe transports the flows that previously were diverted to the Elkhart River by a now plugged overflow point. The pipe was designed to transport flows of 159 million gallons per day (MGD), based on the ultimate storm of record in Goshen, which was 6.9 inches over 7 hours which took place January 11-12, 2006. There were several overall neighborhood improvements included in the 90” Sewer Project. The improvements included water main and sanitary sewer replacement, installation of new concrete curb and gutter, sidewalks, approach access, and newly landscaped park strips on First Street and River Avenue.

In addition to the 90-inch Sewer, combined sewage is also transported to the CS Detention Facility by three pump stations containing chopper pumps to “chop” large debris commonly found in combined sewage.

The construction of all six projects incorporated environmentally friendly measures including; gravity sewers, variable frequency drives on all large motors, and hydraulic (instead of electric) flushing gates.

The goal of the CSO Abatement Projects was to reduce the annual number of CSO events from approximately 28 to two or less by eliminating two combined sewer overflow control points, and transport and treat combined sewer flows from their former overflow points. Since coming on-line, there have been no CSO events. The system has transported, held, and returned wastewater and stormwater to the WWTP for full treatment, and has successfully met the expected goals.