What's Happening in Youngstown, OH…

The Youngstown City Council will decide whether to spend $5m to develop an interceptor sewer that will prevent sewage from entering Mill Creek Park.

Out of the $82,775,370 Youngstown got from the federal American Rescue Fund, this is the project that earned the biggest single grant. The rule, which was proposed by Mayor Brown, would also allow the board to contract out the design work. The city must spend $160m on wastewater upgrades as part of a 2014 deal it struck with the EPA. This includes installing interceptor sewers.

The city was originally required to spend $310m on the work, but the amount was reduced to $160m with the understanding that they would complete it in two decades. Officials claim that cost is still expensive, which is why the city has been attempting to reduce it, but their requests have been turned down by the federal authorities.

The city's wastewater treatment plant is upgraded in phases and the first phase is nearly complete. Printing services could be used to show the various phases of this sort of project.

The second phase, which involved building a new facility next to the treatment facility to improve the handling of sewage during heavier downpours, was bypassed by the city, and work on the third phase is now underway. The construction of an interceptor and the replacement of 13 pipes that discharge sewage into Mill Creek make up the third phase.