Politics & Government
Winnetka's Sanitary Sewer Work Could Begin this Fall
Winnetka plans to launch a pilot program to analyze and repair the areas that experienced the most storm water flooding.
The Winnetka voiced support at the Aug. 21 meeting for a $75,000 pilot program that would examine and repair the sanitary sewers in the areas of the village worst hit by .
Engineering firm Strand Associates had originally suggested beginning work in spring 2013, but Village Engineer Steve Saunders said that an immediate limited launch would allow Winnetka to gather more data on how intense the repair project will be before committing to more work. Strand went through a similar process to identify and repair defects in the city of Wood Dale’s system.
“We really have no idea what we're going to find in terms of public repair needs in our sanitary sewer system and, if we fix those, how much private infiltration is still in the system,” Saunders said. “We'll have information that we can extrapolate out to the rest of the sewer system so we'll have an indication of what we're really getting into.”
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After the pilot was completed, Strand Associates would work with the village on installing meters to determine how to the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District impacts the village. Investigations would continue in early 2013 with the goal of formulating a comprehensive rehabilitation project before Winnetka determines its budget for the year.
President Jessica Tucker said she was eager to move on to repairs and was concerned the village might spend too much money on studies that would go nowhere.
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"We certainly want to take the next steps being as cost effective as we can,” she said. “After a certain point we either put a shovel in the ground, or we don't.”
Trustee Jennifer Spinney agreed, saying that she would like to see a monthly newsletter keep residents abreast of the storm water progress.
“I'm a little tired of being stopped on the street everywhere we go and asked when are we going to do something,” she said.
Both Tucker and trustee Arthur Braun said they would like to see a matrix laying out the specific objectives and costs of the storm water project.
“If we have to go to 2014 to get data before we fix it, I'm not so sure I want to embark into that program,” he said. “We're talking about a small number of homes that are being damaged by this. All I ask is can we get some specific milestones and some real data we can look at?”
Saunders estimated that sanitary sewer backups were partially to blame for 200 of the 1,000 homes that experienced flooding last summer, but acknowledged that the village wouldn’t be able to entirely fix the problem.
“You're not going to be able to seal up every pinhole in the sanitary sewer system, and its not going to be cost effective to do so,” he said. “I don't think anybody should belabor under the assumption that we're going to have a completely tight sanitary system.”
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