NEWS ITEMS
Last updated 5/15/1996
New Sewer Proposal To Be Presented:
Waste
Water District Has A New Sewer Proposal
After Section 17 overwhelmingly rejected the last sewer proposal,
the Johnson County Waste Water District looked into other alternatives
to the septic systems now in use. According to the Johnson County
Waste Water, the reasons for continuing to investigate the issue
are:
- A belief by the Water District that the last proposal was
rejected largely because of cost
- Continued complaints by some residents of our neighborhood
about septic systems
The new alternative will probably be presented to our neighborhood
in a meeting not much sooner than the end of this summer. Public
meetings for some other neighborhoods (e.g., Oxford Pointe at
151st and Switzer) are planned prior to that. Public meetings
will be followed by another post card preference vote.
Descripton
Of New Sewer System
Under the new proposal a main gravity assist sewer line would
still be built, perhaps along the route south of 167th street,
as originally proposed. However, the remainder of the system would
be based on pumping waste water from homes to small pipes under
streets and from there to the gravity assist sewer line. A trench
would be cut from each house to the street pipe and a pipe laid.
A hole would be dug next to the foundation of the house, where
waste water leaves the house now, and a new grinder pump installed
about 6 feet down with a 40 gallon wet well.
The grinder pump is able to grind items which should not be,
but are, dropped down toilets. It could almost turn a towel into
a slurry. The pump would come on a few times each day for under
a minute and move the waste water from the wet well to the pipes
running along the streets. From there the waste water would follow
the pipes under pressure until it reached the main gravity assist
sewer line. When running, the pump would not be audible inside
the house and probably not audible outside.
Early Estimates
Of Cost
According to the Waste Water District, which has not yet finished
costing the proposal and hence does not want to be held to any
figures, the system could be in the range of 40% cheaper than
the approximately $15,000 original price tag. Some additional
costs associated with the proposal last year also may be eliminated.
For instance, Waste Water District just submitted a proposal to
the County Commission to eliminate the $2,250 in additional charges
to each house to connect to the system. There would be no fee
to pay a plumber (estimated at around $1,500 last fall). It sounded
like the final price tag would be under $10,000 per household,
perhaps a few thousand under $10,000 - but the cost is not really
known yet.
The electricity to run the pump would be paid for by the homeowner,
but this should be less than $1.00 per month, perhaps $0.40 per
month.
According to the Waster Water District, besides the cost advantage,
there would be less environmental disruption and reclamation.
The pipe and trench would be much smaller and travel along existing
roads. No trees would have to be cut.
Maintenance Of
New System
Maintenance of the system would be the responsibility of the
Waste Water District, which would contract out the work to a private
company. There would be a guaranteed 1 hour response time when
the system fails at a house. Failure would cause an audible alarm
to go off. Continued use of toilets and other waste water producers
after failure could cause backup of waste water into the home.
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