De-watering at
Chesterton’s wastewater treatment plant on League Lane--part of a major
construction project--is expected to continue for another three to four
weeks, although at a significantly slower pace.
And it may not be
for several more weeks, or even longer than that, until two residents of the
300 block of Waverly Road in Porter will know whether their private
wells--right now de-watered dry--have re-charged or are likely to re-charge.
So it’s pretty much
wait-and-see for everyone involved, including the Chesterton Utility Service
Board, which heard from the affected residents at its meeting Monday night.
The Service Board
did express its sympathy to the two residents, who are currently drinking
bottled water and using for non-potable uses water hosed to them from a
neighbor. President Larry Brandt and Utility Superintendent Terry Atherton
also emphasized that the Utility is meeting and will continue to meet all of
its obligations to the residents--Atherton said that he thinks possibly
“we’re going a little bit beyond what we have to do”--and that, for the
moment, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources has not declared a
“water emergency.”
The one thing which
the Service Board would not do is commit to any kind of “contingency plan,”
which one of the affected residents, Linda Hart, was hoping it would do. “I
was just hoping there’s a contingency plan if this well doesn’t re-fill,”
she said. “This is my life savings. I can’t move. I’m stuck.”
“Whatever it is, is
a temporary situation,” Brandt assured her. He then asked Atherton whether
the state requires a contingency plan of the Utility under these
circumstances. Atherton said that the state does not.
“Let’s say we stop
de-watering and the water doesn’t return to the wells,” Brandt supposed.
“We’d have to see why that is. It’s been pointed out to us that one of the
wells wasn’t dug to the proper depth.”
Sexton suggested
politely that Brandt’s information was wrong. Not only a contractor who
inspected the wells after they ran dry--and before it was known why--but
also the DNR indicated that both wells had been dug properly, he said.
“If that’s the
case, we should expect the water level to return,” Associate Town Attorney
Chuck Parkinson said.
Sexton, however,
did not share Parkinson’s confidence. On the contrary, he said, the DNR has
told him that it could take months for the wells to re-charge. And sometimes
they never do. “Your attorney says maybe it’ll take a few weeks. But how can
he say that confidently when the DNR doesn’t know how long?”
Sexton did make it
clear that he in no way objects to the de-watering itself, made necessary by
an addition to the plant’s headworks building, as part of the federally
mandated long term control plan to reduce sewage bypasses into the Little
Calumet River. “I understand the de-watering,” he said. “I’m not arguing
that point at all. I’m just concerned we’re coming into the winter months
without water.”
“I’m kind of in
limbo,” Sexton added. Unlike Hart, Sexton rents the property in question and
at this point he’s fearful he may be forced to move to another location,
especially if cold winter weather ends up freezing the 3/4-inch hose which
is supplying him non-potable water for showers and cleaning.
The potential
problem presented by freezing temperatures is easily solved, Member Jim
Raffin noted. Insulation of some kind can be wrapped around the hose to keep
it from icing. Raffin then instructed Town Engineer Mark O’Dell to see that
this is done.
“Let’s be honest,”
Raffin observed. “If we were in their shoes, we’d be thinking the same way.
And if the water returns, it’s all good. If not, then we’ll go from there.”