Aurora outlining plans for ‘green’ drainage projects
Beacon-News Staff October 8, 2012 6:14PM
Updated: November 11, 2012 6:12AM
AURORA — The city is planning community meetings to get resident feedback on “green” projects intended to help reduce the burden on the sewer system.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has mandated communities separate combined sanitary and storm sewers — like the system in Aurora — to reduce sewage overflows and backups into basements. The city stopped building combined sewers in the 1940s, but the infrastructure remains in place in the older parts of Aurora.
The city and Fox Metro Water Reclamation District have spent more than $200 million in improvements to Aurora’s sewer system, but there still is a significant amount of work needed to comply with the federal mandate, city officials said.
The Illinois Green Infrastructure Program has awarded a $1.4 million grant to the City, Fox Metro and the Valley of the Fox Group of the Sierra Club to help fund improvements.
Several meetings are planned to explain the projects and to obtain resident feedback. The first two meetings will be at 9 a.m. Oct. 13 for the 3rd Ward and at 9 a.m. Oct. 20 for the 2nd Ward, in the Aldermen’s Office, 60 E. Downer Place. Other meetings are to be scheduled.
For information, call Eric Schoney, the city’s drainage and underground coordinator, at 630-256-3200.
