South Bend Common Council allocates $36 million to improve wastewater treatment plant

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - The South Bend Common Council will allocate $36 million towards improving the city's Sewage Works system. 

The Department of Public Works proposed the bill, in accordance with the Clean Water Act, to improve the wastewater treatment plant, rather than flowing the waste in the St. Joseph River. 

On dry days, sanitary sewer lines and storm sewer lines flow through the treatment plant, however, on rainy days, with ample amounts of water flow in the city, the wastewater plant dumps the excess water into the river. 

Eric Horvath, the Public Works Director of South Bend, wants to correct this illegal act.

"[We're] making sure that we're improving the environment so that we don't have sewage going to the river."

The current wastewater treatment plant can filter 77 to 100 million gallons of water a day. 

In August of 2021, the City reached an agreement with the Department of Justice, United States Environmental Protection Agency and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, requiring $276 million to improve the sewer system by the end of 2031. 

The $36 million is the first installment of the total $276 million, which will be a 20-year process. 

"We have other basins that we need to build other improvements, the sewer system that will be happening over the next 20 years, that you'll be seeing a lot more of this in the future," said Horvath.