City touts largest infrastructure investment in its history
ELKHART — A $37 million combined sewer overflow storage tank will be the largest single infrastructure investment in the city's history, officials said during a ceremony Tuesday.
The tank is designed to capture and store combined sewer overflows – when hard rain or melting snow drains into sewage lines and overwhelms the city's treatment system, Public Works Director Tory Irwin said. Historically, the overflow goes into the river, so storage tanks have been built to reduce and eliminate discharges before the waste can be safely treated.
This new tank will hold about 1.7 million gallons – the amount contained in 2½ Olympic-sized swimming pools.
'In combination with the other four storage tanks that we currently have in the system, we have about 5 million gallons of storage capacity,' Irwin said. 'When we're done, we'll have five tanks in total with about 6 million gallons in storage capacity.'
There are four phases to the project and construction is currently in phase two of the project, Irwin said. The total project after all four phases are complete will cost approximately $90 million.
The entire project when completed will run a pipe from the heart of the city's downtown to the wastewater treatment plant. Irwin said that is about 10 miles of pipe.
'This project will also include a new bike path that will allow bikers to navigate from Nappanee Street all the way into the city's River District,' Irwin said. 'This project has been going on since the design started in 2022 and when we're done it will be the end of 2027, with all four phases.'
The new tank will help bring cleaner water to the St. Joseph and Elkhart rivers. The city's investment in infrastructure will lead to a better quality of life for all residents, Mayor Rod Roberson said.
'We had a six point swing from 2010 to 2020 with our city population and we believe it's because of projects just like this,' Roberson said. 'We found people utilizing our rivers for kayaking, canoeing and fishing that they've never utilized our rivers before. The livability has gone up, the recreation has gone up and the ability to know we have clean waterways has as well.'
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