Lorain to replace sanitary sewer pump stations

LORAIN — Lorain will spend more than $30 million to upgrade its sanitary sewer pump stations. On Sept. 2, City Council approved plans to contract for rehabilitation of the Pearl and Tacoma pump stations in the city — a $27.5 million project to be paid out over the next 30 years through an Ohio Environmental Protection Agency loan. But its other pump stations on the west side — Jaeger and Martin's Run – also will see upgrades soon, too, and all four projects are expected to be complete in mid-2028, Utilities Director Joseph Carbonaro said. The pump stations push sanitary sewer flows from residential and commercial customers' plumbing to either the Black River Wastewater Treatment Plant or the Philip Q. Maiorana Wastewater Treatment Plant, depending on where in the city or surrounding communities a customer lives. All four of the pump stations are between 30 and 40 years old. The average lifespan of the pumps is about 25 years, Water Pollution Control Superintendent Alex Berki said. The city's south side pumps are the oldest. The Tacoma and Pearl stations were built in the 1950s and last rehabbed in the late 1990s. The Jaeger station was built in the late 1980s, the same as the PQM Wastewater Treatment Plant. The Martin's Run station was built in the 1960s and rehabbed in the 1980s. The Tacoma, Pearl and Jaeger stations will see new, higher-capacity pumps replacing their old equipment. The new pumps can chop up debris that may clog lines, like baby wipes and grease. While some bathroom wipes may say "flushable" on the packaging, Berki and Carbonaro said the products do not break down in water and can cause backups in wastewater systems. A bill, which has since passed the U.S. House of Representatives in June, seeks to rename the products as "non-flushable" to help protect wastewater infrastructure from further damage. Those wipes are not the only things that have found their way into the city's sanitary sewers, Carbonaro said. Crews have pulled plastic, fast-food bags and other garbage from clogged lines. The Martin's Run station will be entirely replaced with a station farther up the hill in the same neighborhood to move it from a 100-year to a 500-year floodplain. A 100-year floodplain, as designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, refers to a location with a 1 in 100 chance of flooding; a 500-year floodplain is a location with a 1 in 500 chance of the same occurrence. The Martin's Run Station flooded during August 2023 storms. It saw 6 feet of water standing at its door, Carbonaro said, and a destroyed generator. The Martin's Run Pump Station project received just under $3.4 million from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The last estimated cost for the new station was about $5.5 million, as of 2020, though the city expects that cost to have increased. The Jaeger overhaul will cost about $12 million and will increase the station's capacity to handle developments on the city's westside and in surrounding communities. For example, the Jaeger Pump Station handles sewage from Amherst Township's Hidden Valley subdivision, and the new Sandstone Village housing and commercial development near the turnpike. The city received $4 million in principal forgiveness on the Jaeger Station project from the Ohio EPA, bringing the city's out-of-pocket cost down to about $8 million. The hope, Carbonaro and Berki said, is that the increased capacity at the four pump stations will help the city better weather storms and prevent some backflow into residents' homes or overflows into the Black River or Lake Erie. The Black River Wastewater Treatment Plant is designed to treat about 15 million gallons of sewage per day, Carbonaro said. While it averages only about 12 million gallons each day, storms can see as much as 50 million gallons surge into the plant — and the pump stations preceding it. The Pearl Station will have three pumps and the Tacoma Station will increase from three to four pumps and have a retention basin able to hold about 500,000 gallons of wastewater during storms. The Jaeger and Martin's Run stations will each have four pumps once work is complete, able to move wastewater to the PQM Treatment Plant at a higher rate. During renovations, the Tacoma, Pearl and Jaeger pump stations will have temporary pumps bypassing them until the new pumps are installed. The current Martin's Run Pump Station will remain in operation until the new one is completed. Work to the pump stations will be paid from customers' sanitary sewer bills. Carbonaro did not expect the city to increase rates to cover project costs. Project costs will be paid over 20 to 30 years, depending on the pump station. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.