Rain Garden Contract Goes Down In Flames
Posted by Jeff Pruitt - 5/22/08 @ 8:58 am - Filed Under City Council, Featured
Mike Sylvester’s post touched on the rain garden project that was discussed at the last city council meeting. The impetus for this project comes from the city’s consent decree with the EPA and is part of the city’s fines related to the combined sewage overflow problem. During negotiations the EPA told the city they needed to develop some kind of green infrastructure project and city utilities decided on a rain garden project.
City utilities idea was to hire a consultant to create a public education program as well as 16 rain gardens among other things. Of course city utilities has to spend a certain amount of money on a rain garden project but the one they chose seems to deliver very little bang for their buck. In fact I’ve never seen a proposal before city council crash and burn like this one did. I mean just watch the reaction from the various councilmembers - they’re in complete disbelief that this is what city utilities decided to spend the money on. Here’s a montage of various clips during the discussion:
What’s even more unbelievable is today’s JG story has the director of City Utilities, Kumar Menon, basically telling city council that even if they don’t pass the current contract it will just come right back to them in some other form:
Kumar Menon, City Utilities director, said Wednesday that if the proposal is defeated, it will have to come back to the council because it is required by the federal government under a negotiated settlement.
Menon said the city would review the contract and see whether anything could be changed, but he said the city still believes the inclusive program is the best way to go.
He said the council will be asked “sooner rather than later” to approve the program so the city can meet its deadlines with the federal government.
I hope what he means by that is that the city council will have to approve some program and that he’s not actually thinking about sending back the same program. If so, all I can say is good luck with that Mr Menon…
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7 Responses to “Rain Garden Contract Goes Down In Flames”
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They need to get a hold of Abby Frost of SaveMaumee.org. She’s a highly motivated educating individual who has yearly (every Earth Day) gathered a group to clean up the Maumee and it’s personal “infrastructure” and has some genuine spirit and gusto along this line…
Not to mention her own self-funding of the projects and all the money she has raised to help—without charging $300K to do it. She really knows the value of the project and the ideals behind it.
I have her number if anyone wants it. She truly is a fantastic and dedicated person.
Our new City COuncil has proved to be much more effective then the old one and they seem to be actually questioning proposals that come before them.
This would be a huge waste of taxdollars…
Mike Sylvester
Jeff thanks for the update.
I serve on the Board of Save Maumee’s fiscal agent and partner Heartland Communities. These rain gardens are a good idea but they (as usual when government plans out anything) probably do need reworked a bit. I do agree also that City Council is doing its job by actually questioning whether or not this is (as currently planned) the best practice for resolving the issues. If the City was so dead set on settling this issue so they didnt get whipped across the *** with the fines etc. or by the CC now, they probably should have had atleast one if not two (D&R) members/advisor’s of City Council present during the negotiations.
I have been covering this issue on my blog as well, in depth since two months ago, most recently this past Wednesday (not a plug just passing info).
Hello, in relation to this topic and the posts. I sit with Father Fozy on the board of Heartland Communities nonprofit as the Secretary and I am a Coordinator for Save Maumee along with Abigail Frost. Even more pertinent is I have been participating on the Sewer Advisory Board which has been the forum for the public to work with City Utilities in negotiating the consent decree to the EPA and creating the “Long Term Reduction Control Plan,” which outlines the full/partial separation of our sewer systems and satellite treatment to reduce CSO’s “Combined Sewer Overflows,” to get under 5 a year allowed by the EPA from our 70-140/yr that has been the norm.
By working with the consent decree and implementing this plan Fort Wayne will be avoiding 10s of millions of fines from the EPA. Which no city council vote is going to override federal mandate and fines if Fort Wayne decides not to participate. This is probably why Karen Goldner spoke up and said that it is important to support the decree and follow through but not with this proposal. City Council is defiantly doing there job fiscally in this case.
Where the rain gardens come in is in this situation with the EPA there was an immediate fine of 500,000 that the city should pay. But there is a supplemental program where the City could agree to put a near or equal amount of money into a public practice, initiative, or BMP “Best Management Practice: A tool or utility used to reduce pollution and in this case the load being bared by our failing stormwater system.” IF the city was to put an equal or near amount into such a thing then the immediate fine of 500,000 would be negated. Possible options would be putting in green roofs, pervious pavement, constructed wetlands, etc. But in this case “due to the supposed cheapness of rain gardens and the ability to get more bangs for our buck,” the BMP chosen was Rain Gardens. That’s irony for you.
As for why this proposal was a direct contradiction and cost so much, I have no idea. Except for that it’s an out of state firm and we are paying heavily for professional glam and over priced services. Your right Jennifer and Mike, Save Maumee Grassroots Organization is perfect for the job, with our large volunteer force and being charitable, should be able to stretch that dollar out the most. At minimal we should be able to put in place at least 200 rain gardens along with having a good education and outreach program to educated the public to help propel understanding and the green paradigm. We would supply and hire locally, get citizen involvement at all levels. We could even possibly work this into a 319(h) grant from IDEM “A large grant system put in place by the Clean Water Act and funded by federal legislation,” and get a 60% match for the 420,000 the City throws at us putting it at 1 million going into rain gardens here locally, 60% of it coming from the fed which is in sense an economy boost. Is there such a thing as rain garden overkill? In a sense I could only get a match for rain garden work being done on the Maumee watershed, but if the St. Mary group and the St. Joe group joined in with their 319(h) grants, then it would be across the board in Allen County. Realistically though, with start up costs in the past and the rain garden machine running well, that would turn our proposed 200 gardens into around 600 at minimum.
With this proposal being denied, maybe with a little bit of luck, intelligence, and community ethic, the Utilities focus has been cleared and they will look our way. But we are grassroots and organic, it will take help from the public to lobby our proposal if we are applicable.
That’s what I know, hope it helped.
[...] leverage the city’s money across the county and possibly receive federal grant dollars. From Reuter’s original comment here at FWP: Save Maumee Grassroots Organization is perfect for the job, with our large volunteer [...]
I believe it would be in the city’s best interest to step back and look at possible solutions on a larger scale…that is, realize the fact that rain gardens alone are not and cannot be the sole answer to the problem. True green infrastructure isn’t a single solution system; it involves the identification of the most viable combination of solutions, from rain gardens, to bioswales, to sand filter beds, etc in what is typically called a treatment train. Take these stormwater treatment options and combine them with other issues the city is dealing with…alternative transportation, beautification, cultural identification…this combination of solutions/amenities would be a true green infrastructure plan, not just an EPA prescribed band-aid trying to cure a fatal CSO problem.