Because of Muncie’s outdated sewage system, when flood waters flow into the White River — and people’s yards and streets — it is often contaminated with raw sewage.
Twice in as many weeks Muncie residents have been issued flash flood warnings by the National Weather Service, leading to backed up water and a backed up sewer system which carries rain water and sewage in the same piping, the same as it has for 130 years, said Rick Conrad, director of bureau of water quality of the city of Muncie.
When those pipes are too full, water is released — sewage and all — into the White River and Buck Creek through the city’s 17 overflows.
If the water comes down even faster, it can overflow from street-side storm drains into people’s yards or even basements.
This can raise levels of E. coli bacteria more than 200 times the safe limit for swimming and wading, Conrad said.
The city has already begun to fix the problem with a $10 million project to separate the sewage and rain water in downtown Muncie that will reduce pollution about 10 percent. However, the price to fix the entire system is projected to be around $160 million and take until 2031, according to the Muncie Sanitary District’s Long Term Control Plan.
“By separating them, Muncie will no longer be releasing that untreated sewage into the river,” Conrad said.
The fix is relatively simple, Conrad said, just add more pipes to allow both systems to flow separately, but the price tag is high because it often means tearing up streets and sidewalks.
The problem isn’t exclusive to Muncie, or even Indiana, but throughout the Midwest.
“For whatever reason, when these cities were being built, [combined sewage systems] were viewed as a beneficial idea,” Conrad said. “But as they have grown it has become a big problem now.”
Downtown, work is already under way to fix some of the city’s problems, and it’s only a matter of time — and money — until waste no longer flows freely into the city’s waterways.
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