Hoke Plat Information

 

Hoke Plat Water and Sanitary Sewers
Project Description

The Unincorporated area in Union Township of Miami County located southwest of West Milton at the intersection of S. Jay Road and Emerick Road including portions of S. Jay Road and Emerick Road, Reisert Drive, Carroll Drive, Mischler Drive and Evergreen Drive has no central water or sewer service.  Approximately 48 properties in the proposed service area utilize private drinking water wells on-site (Septic Systems) wastewater treatment systems that are regulated by the Miami County Health Department.  Miami County Sanitary and the Health Department want to minimize the amount of inadequate systems discharging in this community.  The proposed public water and wastewater systems will allow for the abandonment of the on-site disposal systems.

The proposed water distribution system will obtain it’s water from the West Milton system, which is fed by the Troy Water Treatment Plant.  The proposed collection system will include transport the wastewater to a local lift station where it will then be transferred to the West Milton collection system.

Hoke Plat - Water and Sewer Projects

Public Meeting at 6:30 PM February 23rd at Milton Union Senior Center

I. INTRODUCTION

  1. BRIEF PROJECT HISTORY
  2. Most of the current houses in the project area are currently served with private wells and on-site wastewater treatment systems.
  3. Most of the leach fields are smaller than what would be permitted under current OEPA or County Health Standards and/ or they are set too close to bedrock.
  4. Additionally if a replacement system was needed, most of the lots would only be approved for a mound or peat biofilter replacement system, which would cost between $10,000 to $18,000 to construct.
  5. In 2003, the adjacent West Milton Christian Center connected to West Milton Water and West Milton Sewer.
  6. CURRENT STATUS OF PROJECT
    1. The survey and geotechnical work is scheduled to start this month.
      1. Total Project Cost has not been determined as some preliminary design work must take place first, but once cost has been determined the project will be paid for with a combination of:
  7. Property Assessments
  8. Tap Fees
    1. Sewer Rates
      1. Grant Money
      2. State Subsidized Loans

IV. REVIEW OF PROJECT TIMELINE

  1. Preliminary and Final Design ---- February – September 2010
  2. Receive EPA - PTI ---- November 2010
  3. Bid and Award ---- Dependent on Funding
  4. Construction

V. COMMON QUESTIONS AND OPENING IT UP TO QUESTIONS AND ANSEWERS

Answers to Common Questions on Water and Sanitary Sewer Retrofit Projects

Questions have been answered jointly by Pat Turnbull – Miami County Sanitary Engineer’s Office & Jim Luken – Miami County Health District.

1. What are the various agencies involved with this project and what are each of them responsible for?

The Miami County Health District is responsible for all on-lot residential water and wastewater treatment systems.  They are the legal permitting and monitoring body for all private residential on-lot wastewater treatment systems and private well drinking water systems.  In addition, once the public water and sewers become available they govern how the existing on-lot systems should be taken out of service and how the individual house water service lines and sewer laterals must be run to the respective water and sewer mains.  The Health District is a separate political entity from the Board of County Commissioners.  It is governed by a Board of Health, which is appointed by elected officials from the cities, townships and villages in Miami County, excepting Piqua, which has its own separate health department.

The Ohio EPA is responsible for monitoring stream quality and when large amounts of untreated wastewater ends up in drainage ways can order the responsible governmental entity, in this case the Miami County Commissioners, to run public sewers to correct the problems resulting from multiple on-lot system failures.  They are also the permitting and monitoring body of non-residential water and on-lot sewage treatment systems.

The Miami County Sanitary Engineer’s Office is a department of the Miami County Commissioners.  The Miami County Sanitary Engineers Office designs, will construct, own, and operate the drinking water distribution and wastewater collection systems.  They conduct these duties under the Ohio Revised Code for all unincorporated areas of the County.  The tap fee, which serves as the permit to install the water and sewer services, will be included in a property assessment, which also will cover the mainline construction costs that are not funded by grants.  The plumber or homeowner should contact Sanitary Engineering to schedule the inspection of the connection from the house to the mainline.

2.   Why must all properties in the service area tie onto the new public sewer lines?

Under the Ohio Administrative Code Section 3701-29-02 (M), which the Miami County Health District enforces locally – “Whenever a sanitary sewer system becomes accessible to the property, a household sewage system shall be abandoned and the house sewer directly connected to the sewerage system.”

Furthermore, based upon discussions with the Miami County Health District, most of the lot sizes in the proposed service area are too small to install an on-site sewage treatment system that would meet modern Health District Guidelines for a new leaching septic field.  In addition, most of the existing systems have been in existence for more than thirty years, well beyond the normal useful life that the Health District has seen for such systems to adequately treat a household’s waste water.

3. Do I have to tie onto the new public water system?

No.  The Health District does not mandate tying onto the water distribution system for residential properties as it does for the wastewater collection system.  Homeowners will tie onto the water system on an as needed basis, based upon their discretion.  All properties, whether they choose to tie onto the public water or not, will still have to pay their share of the water main line cost in the form of a property assessment.  People that choose to tie onto the public water can keep their well and continue using it for non-potable use, meaning they simply must disconnect the well from the house’s internal plumbing.

4. Who is responsible for installing what and what is all the tap fee and assessment money going to be spent on?

The Water Distribution and Sewer Collection System will be constructed by a General Contractor after the project has been publicly bid.  In addition, the General Contractor will also construct individual grinder stations that are necessary for a few properties that couldn’t be served easily with gravity and the small diameter forcemain from the grinder station to the gravity sewer mainline.

In the case where the property will be served with a sewer gravity line from the house, the homeowner will be responsible for hiring a registered plumbing contractor to run a gravity line from the edge of the roadway right of way to their house.  A homeowner is also permitted to install the house sewer line himself on his own house.  They are still subject to all of the installation standards and must obtain the installation/inspection permit ($30) from the Miami County Health District.

In the case of a grinder pump connection to the gravity sewers, the homeowner will run the gravity line to their grinder station pit and run electric from their house to the grinder station.

For all water services, the homeowner (or their chosen contractor) must install a water service line from a meter pit at the right-of-way to the house.

A twenty year property assessment, which will include the property tap fee for water and sewer, will be utilized to pay for the debt service on a loan that the State of Ohio will finance for the County at below market or 0% interest rates for the water and sewer main lines.  Prior to financing the construction, the County will first maximize the grant dollars and will only proceed with construction, once the lowest cost solution for the properties is found.

5. What is the actual environmental problem that the sewer system will be remedying?

According to Health District records, complaints from property owners, and conversations with Ohio EPA, currently many, of the on-lot septic systems in the project area are not adequately treating the wastewater prior to leaching or discharging the effluent.  According to the Health District, this is due to a few factors, primarily the lack of a sufficiently sized disposal area, shallow bedrock, and systems that have exceeded their useful life.  Currently about one third of the wells that have been tested recently in the project area have shown fecal colliform or e-coli contamination.  This is a good indication that malfunctioning septic systems have caused contamination of private wells.  County is willing to conduct free well sampling for anyone interested.  Jeff Koehl can speak more specifically about program.

6. I believe that my system works fine and I would like to be exempt from the project, how do I seek an exemption?

If you are currently located on a 10 + acre lot and located in an agricultural district as defined under Ohio Revised Code Section 929.02 you are exempt from the project and the assessment.  I’m not currently aware of any property that has been included in the project area that meets that definition.  If you believe your property qualifies for this exemption, please contact the Miami County Auditor’s office at 937-440-5925 for more information.

If you are not located in an agricultural district, but believe that your house and on-lot system is located on a suitably sized parcel, and that your system is performing well, you may seek an exemption from the Miami County Health District, please contact them at 937-440-5460 for more information.  The criteria for granting variances from the rules are two: You must prove that connecting to the sewer will create an undue hardship (not just expensive, but very expensive relative to a leach field repair) and that there will be no health hazard created as a result of granting the variance.  If the Miami County Health District deems that you are exempt from tying onto the public sewers, you will not have to hook into the sewers; however, you will still need to pay the sewer assessment for your property because having the sewers available is still a benefit to the property.

7. Once the sewer project is complete, how long do I have until I’m required to tie onto the sewers?

The Miami County Health District requires that residential discharging systems, systems that discharge directly to a creek or other surface drainage way, systems that are malfunctioning, or systems that have been illegally tied to storm sewers or drainage tiles, must tie onto public sewers immediately after they become available.  The Health District gives residential properties that are functioning properly and have subsurface leach lines three years to tie on.

The Ohio EPA requires that all commercial, institutional, churches, and generally all non-residential properties must tie onto sewers immediately after they become available.

8. There are people in the project area that simply can not afford this project, is there some form of governmental relief that these people can seek?

The County is in the process of applying for grant money to be utilized in aiding the people that fall into an income range that the Ohio Department of Development defines as a Low to Moderate Income Range.  The County will be conducting a confidential door to door income survey in 2011, so please participate as this will maximize the County’s grant opportunities.  Families that are living in a house they own (not renting) that fall into the proper range will be eligible to get their hook-up charges (and possibly the assessment depending on the grant) paid for by grant dollars.  The Miami County Economic Development Department will be sending out grant application information regarding this process if we’re successful in obtaining the grant.

9. What is usually included in the cost of the physical hook-up to the sewer?

Your contractor (or yourself if it is your own house) will include the following tasks in his price:

  1. Purchasing the inspection permit from the Health District ($30).
  2. Digging, installing, bedding the new building sewer line from the house to the tap near the street.
  3. Any plumbing changes necessary inside the house.
  4. Pumping, crushing, and filling the old septic tank and/or drywell.
  5. Putting the backfill over the line and old tank.

You do not have to remove the old leaching lines.

10. Can I connect my sump pump to the new sewer line?

No.  Sump pumps and downspout drains may not be connected to the new sanitary sewer system.  Conversely, any laundries drains that bypassed septic systems must now be connected to the new sanitary sewer system.

11. Will I have to pay for an operational permit from the Health District in the future?

No.  Not once you are tied onto the public utilities.

12. If I have further questions, who should I contact?

We’ll periodically be posting project information to our website at www.miamicountysed.com.  You can also contact Pat Turnbull the Miami County Sanitary Engineer at 937-440-5653 regarding the water and sewer project.  If the question pertains to the Health District and your current on-lot water and sewer system you should contact Jeff Koehl at 937-440-5460.

Hoke Plat Public Meeting -
Rescheduled to February 23

The Miami County Sanitary Engineering Department has rescheduled the meeting that was previously scheduled for February 9th, but was canceled due to inclement weather, for Tuesday, February 23rd at 6:30 PM at the Milton Union Senior Center, 435 Hamilton Street, West Milton, to provide information on the Hoke Plat Water and Sewer Project.

Under this project, the Miami County Sanitary Engineering Department proposes to install a water and sewer system to serve residents in and surrounding Hoke Plat, Union Township.

This meeting will provide an opportunity for project neighbors to ask specific questions about the project such as why it is being conducted, who will be affected, and when will the project be conducted.  In addition, in the next couple of weeks, a geotechnical company will be conducting soil and pavement borings in the right of way and a surveying company will be conducting survey work as a part of this project.

If you have any questions, please call Pat Turnbull at Miami County Sanitary Engineering (937) 440-5653.  Miami County Sanitary Engineering encourages residents along the route to attend this important public meeting.

See map below: