cheferson
11-02-2008, 08:22 PM
Project to solve much of Providence’s combined sewer overflow is complete
01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, November 2, 2008
By Peter B. Lord
Journal Environment Writer
The new combined sewer-overflow system stands ready to be tested as soon as the city experiences its first big rainfall.
The Providence Journal / Frieda Squires
PROVIDENCE — When Art Sheridan clicks his computer mouse in a new control room building off Allens Avenue, two 400-horsepower electric motors roar into action 300 feet below ground and pump millions of gallons of water to the surface.
Last week Sheridan, control system administrator for the Narragansett Bay Commission, tested four pairs of the giant motors and pumped a small lake of water up to the Fields Point sewage-treatment plant to make sure everything was in working order.
The next time it rains, Sheridan will click that mouse again and open big gates that will allow millions of gallons of sewage runoff to flow into a 3-mile long tunnel bored hundreds of feet below downtown Providence. After the storm, the pumps will transfer the wastewater from the tunnel to the sewer plant, and for the first time in 100 years there will be a big cutback in polluted storm overflow spewing into the city’s rivers and Narragansett Bay.
The $359-million project to solve much of the state’s combined sewer overflow is finally complete. Centered on the tunnel drilled through solid rock 300 feet under downtown Providence, it has been the biggest, and longest-running, public works project in state history. And for the most part, it has been out of sight.
At 2 p.m. on Nov. 13, the CSO Phase One as it is called, will be publicly commissioned under a tent at the construction site between Terminal Road and Ernest Street in Providence. There will be some speeches and fresh shellfish. Politicians, fishermen, environmentalists and construction workers will celebrate.
The project will be dedicated to former Gov. J. Joseph Garrahy, who created the task force on Narragansett Bay pollution that led to the creation in 1980 of the Narragansett Bay Commission. The state agency took over the Fields Point plant after the City of Providence had allowed it to fall into such disrepair that it polluted the Bay every day.
Ray Marshall, the Bay Commission’s executive director, says the public should appreciate that this massive construction project came in on time and on budget.
“People are constantly reading about projects that are fiascos,” Marshall said last week. “I’d like people to have some good news — they are paying for something that was done efficiently, properly, and with good results. The benefit will be a cleaner Bay.”
The immediate consequence will be less litter in the Bay. Every storm sweeps such things as tires, litter and tree branches into the sewer system and out in the Bay. Starting next week, screens will catch much of that material.
Over time, state officials hope the CSO will allow shellfishing beds to remain open longer. Now, every time it rains more than half an inch, the state Department of Environmental Management closes 5,841 acres in the upper Bay for seven days. When it rains an inch or more, the DEM closes an additional 3,711 acres.
The CSO system is designed to capture all the water in a rainstorm of up to 1½ inches, so shellfish beds should be hit with far fewer closures. DEM officials say it will take months of testing to see how successfully the CSO cleans up the Bay.
The city’s CSO problems began more than 100 years ago, when city officials chose to combine the city’s storm water sewer lines with their new sanitary sewer lines. Marshall said he believes it was a strategy to save money — many of the sewer lines were dug and built by hand.
In dry weather, the combined sewers worked fine. But rainstorms overwhelmed the sewer lines. To avoid having excess sewage back up into homes or streets, 66 gates allow the overflows to pour into the city’s rivers.
In 1979, several years after Congress passed the Clean Water Act setting national standards for pollution reduction, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ordered Providence to repair its dilapidated sewage-treatment plant at Fields Point and to address the combined sewer overflow.
Providence stalled. But then-Governor Garrahy commissioned a task force that recommended creation of a quasi-public state commission to take over and repair the treatment system. In 1980, Rhode Islanders overwhelmingly approved an $87.7-million bond issue for the new Narragansett Bay Water Quality District Commission to use for repairs.
Fifteen years later, the EPA singled out the Fields Point plant as the best in the country for its size. But every significant rainfall continued to cause the system to overflow and pollute the Bay. The overflows were estimated at 2 billion gallons a year.
In the late 1990s, the commission appointed a special task force of “stakeholders,” such as fishermen and municipal officials, to review options. It narrowed its consideration to three options: the massive tunnel plan estimated to cost $559 million in three phases; a combination of tunnels and local treatment plants estimated to cost $389 million, and avoiding any tunnels by building 19 separate treatment structures at a cost of $352 million.
Some stakeholders questioned spending hundreds of millions of dollars to make the upper Bay safe to fish and swim in. They said there wasn’t enough science to support such a big expense. But the majority favored moving ahead with the tunnel project.
In the summer of 1997, the Bay Commission voted 13 to 1 to proceed with the first phase of construction. That centered on building a massive storage tunnel running 3 miles from near the Providence Place mall down to Fields Point. It would collect about 40 percent of the overflows.
A second phase would extend tunnels and pipes to pick up overflows along the Woonasquatucket and lower Seekonk rivers. A third phase would extend collection pipes and tunnels up to Central Falls and Pawtucket from the Bucklin Point plant in East Providence.
The sole dissenter was a member of the Rhode Island Contract Electroplaters Association who said it was already too expensive to do business in Rhode Island — plating companies did not want to see sewer fees double to pay for the CSO project.
Members of the group reacted angrily a few months later when the commission submitted a plan to the EPA supporting all three phases. They wanted the commission to stop after Phase One and evaluate the results.
In 2001, fishermen and state officials gathered for a groundbreaking near the Fox Point Hurricane Barrier. The state’s congressional delegation promised to try to secure federal assistance. They were largely unsuccessful.
The system’s ratepayers, in Providence and surrounding communities, footed much of the bill. When work started, the average residential bill was $120 to $130 annually. Now it’s $375.
Every dimension of the project has been enormous. The machine that bore the tunnel weighed 690 tons. The tunnel was lined with 16,000 concrete segments. The single valve that holds untreated sewage in the tunnel weighs 37,000 pounds. It takes 60 flights of stairs to get down to the pump room.
And while Phase One came in at less than 5 percent over budget, cost estimates for the next two phases have grown well beyond the initial projects. Phase Two is expected to cost about $200 million, and Phase Three another $350 million.
Marshall said the commission plans to start work on Phase Two, interceptor pipes running up the Woonasquatucket and the Seekonk rivers, in 2010. The stakeholders wanted the commission to take time to evaluate the effectiveness of Phase one before proceeding, but Marshall said the DEM has moved up the timeline.
While the project is costly, Marshall points out that other cities face bigger combined-sewer challenges. Hartford is embarking on a $2-billion program, Cleveland’s program is estimated to cost $4 billion.
Michael McGiveney, president of the Rhode Island Shellfishermen’s Association, said completion of work should stabilize the industry and let the fishermen spread out and work more water.
“It’s been a long time coming, but we’re really looking forward to it,” said McGiveney. “It will have a huge impact.”
The Bay Commission has more information and photos of the CSO project at: www.narrabay.com/engineering.asp.
Photographer Peter Goldberg has been documenting the construction since it began. An exhibit of his work will be on display from Nov. 10 to 24 at the Gail Cahalan Gallery at 200 Allens Ave., with an opening reception Nov. 12.
Save the Bay is celebrating completion of the CSO project on Nov. 15 with an event called “The Bay Bash” The Light at the End of the Tunnel.” For more information go to www.savebay.org
01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, November 2, 2008
By Peter B. Lord
Journal Environment Writer
The new combined sewer-overflow system stands ready to be tested as soon as the city experiences its first big rainfall.
The Providence Journal / Frieda Squires
PROVIDENCE — When Art Sheridan clicks his computer mouse in a new control room building off Allens Avenue, two 400-horsepower electric motors roar into action 300 feet below ground and pump millions of gallons of water to the surface.
Last week Sheridan, control system administrator for the Narragansett Bay Commission, tested four pairs of the giant motors and pumped a small lake of water up to the Fields Point sewage-treatment plant to make sure everything was in working order.
The next time it rains, Sheridan will click that mouse again and open big gates that will allow millions of gallons of sewage runoff to flow into a 3-mile long tunnel bored hundreds of feet below downtown Providence. After the storm, the pumps will transfer the wastewater from the tunnel to the sewer plant, and for the first time in 100 years there will be a big cutback in polluted storm overflow spewing into the city’s rivers and Narragansett Bay.
The $359-million project to solve much of the state’s combined sewer overflow is finally complete. Centered on the tunnel drilled through solid rock 300 feet under downtown Providence, it has been the biggest, and longest-running, public works project in state history. And for the most part, it has been out of sight.
At 2 p.m. on Nov. 13, the CSO Phase One as it is called, will be publicly commissioned under a tent at the construction site between Terminal Road and Ernest Street in Providence. There will be some speeches and fresh shellfish. Politicians, fishermen, environmentalists and construction workers will celebrate.
The project will be dedicated to former Gov. J. Joseph Garrahy, who created the task force on Narragansett Bay pollution that led to the creation in 1980 of the Narragansett Bay Commission. The state agency took over the Fields Point plant after the City of Providence had allowed it to fall into such disrepair that it polluted the Bay every day.
Ray Marshall, the Bay Commission’s executive director, says the public should appreciate that this massive construction project came in on time and on budget.
“People are constantly reading about projects that are fiascos,” Marshall said last week. “I’d like people to have some good news — they are paying for something that was done efficiently, properly, and with good results. The benefit will be a cleaner Bay.”
The immediate consequence will be less litter in the Bay. Every storm sweeps such things as tires, litter and tree branches into the sewer system and out in the Bay. Starting next week, screens will catch much of that material.
Over time, state officials hope the CSO will allow shellfishing beds to remain open longer. Now, every time it rains more than half an inch, the state Department of Environmental Management closes 5,841 acres in the upper Bay for seven days. When it rains an inch or more, the DEM closes an additional 3,711 acres.
The CSO system is designed to capture all the water in a rainstorm of up to 1½ inches, so shellfish beds should be hit with far fewer closures. DEM officials say it will take months of testing to see how successfully the CSO cleans up the Bay.
The city’s CSO problems began more than 100 years ago, when city officials chose to combine the city’s storm water sewer lines with their new sanitary sewer lines. Marshall said he believes it was a strategy to save money — many of the sewer lines were dug and built by hand.
In dry weather, the combined sewers worked fine. But rainstorms overwhelmed the sewer lines. To avoid having excess sewage back up into homes or streets, 66 gates allow the overflows to pour into the city’s rivers.
In 1979, several years after Congress passed the Clean Water Act setting national standards for pollution reduction, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ordered Providence to repair its dilapidated sewage-treatment plant at Fields Point and to address the combined sewer overflow.
Providence stalled. But then-Governor Garrahy commissioned a task force that recommended creation of a quasi-public state commission to take over and repair the treatment system. In 1980, Rhode Islanders overwhelmingly approved an $87.7-million bond issue for the new Narragansett Bay Water Quality District Commission to use for repairs.
Fifteen years later, the EPA singled out the Fields Point plant as the best in the country for its size. But every significant rainfall continued to cause the system to overflow and pollute the Bay. The overflows were estimated at 2 billion gallons a year.
In the late 1990s, the commission appointed a special task force of “stakeholders,” such as fishermen and municipal officials, to review options. It narrowed its consideration to three options: the massive tunnel plan estimated to cost $559 million in three phases; a combination of tunnels and local treatment plants estimated to cost $389 million, and avoiding any tunnels by building 19 separate treatment structures at a cost of $352 million.
Some stakeholders questioned spending hundreds of millions of dollars to make the upper Bay safe to fish and swim in. They said there wasn’t enough science to support such a big expense. But the majority favored moving ahead with the tunnel project.
In the summer of 1997, the Bay Commission voted 13 to 1 to proceed with the first phase of construction. That centered on building a massive storage tunnel running 3 miles from near the Providence Place mall down to Fields Point. It would collect about 40 percent of the overflows.
A second phase would extend tunnels and pipes to pick up overflows along the Woonasquatucket and lower Seekonk rivers. A third phase would extend collection pipes and tunnels up to Central Falls and Pawtucket from the Bucklin Point plant in East Providence.
The sole dissenter was a member of the Rhode Island Contract Electroplaters Association who said it was already too expensive to do business in Rhode Island — plating companies did not want to see sewer fees double to pay for the CSO project.
Members of the group reacted angrily a few months later when the commission submitted a plan to the EPA supporting all three phases. They wanted the commission to stop after Phase One and evaluate the results.
In 2001, fishermen and state officials gathered for a groundbreaking near the Fox Point Hurricane Barrier. The state’s congressional delegation promised to try to secure federal assistance. They were largely unsuccessful.
The system’s ratepayers, in Providence and surrounding communities, footed much of the bill. When work started, the average residential bill was $120 to $130 annually. Now it’s $375.
Every dimension of the project has been enormous. The machine that bore the tunnel weighed 690 tons. The tunnel was lined with 16,000 concrete segments. The single valve that holds untreated sewage in the tunnel weighs 37,000 pounds. It takes 60 flights of stairs to get down to the pump room.
And while Phase One came in at less than 5 percent over budget, cost estimates for the next two phases have grown well beyond the initial projects. Phase Two is expected to cost about $200 million, and Phase Three another $350 million.
Marshall said the commission plans to start work on Phase Two, interceptor pipes running up the Woonasquatucket and the Seekonk rivers, in 2010. The stakeholders wanted the commission to take time to evaluate the effectiveness of Phase one before proceeding, but Marshall said the DEM has moved up the timeline.
While the project is costly, Marshall points out that other cities face bigger combined-sewer challenges. Hartford is embarking on a $2-billion program, Cleveland’s program is estimated to cost $4 billion.
Michael McGiveney, president of the Rhode Island Shellfishermen’s Association, said completion of work should stabilize the industry and let the fishermen spread out and work more water.
“It’s been a long time coming, but we’re really looking forward to it,” said McGiveney. “It will have a huge impact.”
The Bay Commission has more information and photos of the CSO project at: www.narrabay.com/engineering.asp.
Photographer Peter Goldberg has been documenting the construction since it began. An exhibit of his work will be on display from Nov. 10 to 24 at the Gail Cahalan Gallery at 200 Allens Ave., with an opening reception Nov. 12.
Save the Bay is celebrating completion of the CSO project on Nov. 15 with an event called “The Bay Bash” The Light at the End of the Tunnel.” For more information go to www.savebay.org