Bedford hopes to spur housing development with wastewater line reconstruction
The City of Bedford wants affordable housing on its east side, but it needs adequate wastewater infrastructure to spur development.
That's why Bedford officials opted to rebuild the Spider Creek line. It just so happens that doing so made a long-desired partnership with GM's Bedford Casting Plant an option.
After a public announcement, however, locals expressed worries about what was in the plant's wastewater and whether ratepayers were footing the bill for a corporation to access public infrastructure.
Those fears were stoked by a post in March on Bill Raines’s Lawrence County Zephyr that connected a recent rate hike to the GM announcement.
While it is true the city raised rates to pay to rebuild the Spider Creek line, Craig said ratepayers aren't covering the cost for GM to connect to the system and shouldn't be worried about additional costs related to cleaning the water flowing out of the plant into the sewer line.
“The Spider Creek Line was already in the works and paid for," Craig said. “The money GM gave us as a connection to our city line is going towards our utilities budget."
Craig said GM paid the city $500,000 for a connection fee, $200,000 of which is earmarked for the project and the rest will support east side housing projects.
As far as additional costs to treat GM's wastewater, Craig and Bedford Utilities Manager Misty Adams said the plant will pretreat the water to remove any contaminants the city's treatment facility is not equipped to handle.
“GM is treating their wastewater the same way they always have been,” said Craig, “and then they’ll release their waste into the city line that (eventually) goes to the White River.”
Adams said the city and state will monitor GM’s waste. “IDEM (Indiana Department of Environmental Management) and my department will examine the water to make sure that GM is within state regulations.”
“We saw it as an opportunity to partner with GM,” said Craig, “since the city has been trying to work out something with them for a long time now.”
The Indiana Economic Development Council has pledged $5 million to the Spider Creek line. Total cost of the project, the city's responsibility or any other funding mechanisms are unclear.
GM did not respond to a request for comment.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Bedford GM plant to connect to city wastewater line
