After eight years, the city has lifted a self-imposed ban on new sewer connections on Seymour’s east side.
City officials are confident the nearly completed south/east sanitary sewer interceptor project will lead to improved sewer function and future growth in the area.
On Thursday, the Seymour Board of Public Works and Safety approved a request from Utility Director Jarin Gladstein to officially dissolve the ban put into place in 2012 by then-director Randy Hamilton.
At that time, the area east of Burkart Boulevard had reached a 90% sewer capacity and was in jeopardy of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management placing a sewer ban on the whole city.
“The sewer ban limited new users and construction from being connected to the existing sanitary system due to capacity,” Gladstein said.
The ban impacted areas include Mutton Creek, Lake Leslie and Greendale residential subdivisions along with the U.S. 50 east commercial corridor.
The new $15.5 million sewer system, which will be finished this month, includes 6 miles of sewer pipe and a regional lift station on East County Road 340N, which eliminated seven of the city’s most troublesome lift stations, improving efficiency and saving the city money in the long run.
Construction started in the fall of 2018. Gladstein said the interceptor and lift station have been operational now for about five months.
The project was first proposed in early 2013 by Mayor Craig Luedeman and Hamilton as a way to ease sewer capacity issues and open up an area of the city for future residential and commercial growth.
It adds up to 9.2 million gallons a day of sewer capacity on the south side of the city and relieves pressure off of the existing system on the east side.
The new sewer infrastructure extends the collection system south along North County Road 975E behind The Home Depot to East County Road 340N. The line then goes west to South O’Brien Street just south of Silgan Plastics.
From there, it turns north and flows to Freeman Avenue, goes west again and ends up dumping into the main sewer line on South Walnut Street on its way to connecting with an existing line that carries it to the city’s water pollution control facility.
Besides the sewer, the city also is putting a new road in the area, extending Burkart Boulevard south and connecting it to Airport Road on the city’s west side, allowing traffic to bypass U.S. 50 to get to the interstate. Construction on that project, which includes a railroad overpass, is underway.
The real payoff of both infrastructure projects is the prospect of new commercial, industrial and residential development in an area that has been designated a federal Opportunity Zone. An Opportunity Zone provides federal tax incentives to developers for private investment in low-income communities.