Tipton Municipal Utilities offices will be closed Friday, March 29th, in observance of Good Friday.
About the Stormwater Department
The Federal Clean Water Act, and Safe Drinking Water Act require the City to manage storm water runoff to protect water quality in rivers and streams, protect watershed health, and protect groundwater as a drinking water resource. The Tipton Municipal Storm Water Utility was established in 2008 to promote the public health, safety, and welfare of the citizens of Tipton, as well as to begin generating funds to pay for the projects necessary to meet the requirements of the Federal Clean Water Act.
Storm Water runoff is generated when precipitation from rain and snow melt events flow over land or impervious surfaces and does not percolate into the ground. As the runoff flows over the land or impervious surfaces, it accumulates debris, chemicals, sediment or other pollutants that could adversely affect water quality if the runoff is discharged untreated. In addition, when the collection system for the City of Tipton was designed several years ago, it was designed to be a self cleaning system by allowing the rain water to “flush” the collection to the plant with any substantial rainfall. Once the plant was at full capacity, the excess rainwater was designed to flow into the creek. This is known as a “Combined Sewer System” as not only did it flush the sanitary system from time to time, it also provided an inexpensive means of transporting the rainwater off the streets to the creek. Once the system is full and overflows to the creek, this is known as a “Combined Sewer Overflow” (CSO) event. Part of the Federal Clean Water Act requires that our CSO events are eliminated or at least reduced by 85%.
In order to meet this requirement, the Utility Service Board first contracted with HNTB in 2002 to develop a plan to meet the new regulations. The HNTB proposal was going to cost approximately 18 million to accomplish the goal of reducing the overflows by 85%. As time went by, and methods in the industry changed, the Board had the opportunity to have a second plan developed in an effort to cut the overall cost. Strand Associates was then hired to review and develop a revised plan to meet the requirements at a lesser overall cost. The plan presented involved three separate phases including separation of storm and sanitary water, increasing the plant capacity, and a large sewer line running from West Street to the Plant which will collect the waters normally overflowing into the creek. This plan reduced the overall cost to around 12 million. The Board approved the plan and Phase 1 and 2 have been completed. Phase 3 is currently in design and construction is planned to start later this year.
Once our Long Term Control Plan is complete, we must continue to monitor our overflow events and additional projects may be required as or if the Federal requirements change.
Collections and Lift Station Superintendent Tim Davis and his staff oversee the Storm Water Department.
Tipton Municipal Utilities
210 S Main Street
Tipton, IN
46072
Hours:
Mon – Fri: 7:30 am – 4:00 pm
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