Funds netted for wastewater treatment project

The village of Osgood has been awarded an interest-free loan of $210,000 to help finance construction drawings for a proposed wastewater treatment facility for the village.

The wastewater treatment system would replace the home sewage systems that are unlawfully discharging into area waterways, according to the EPA. The loan is from the Ohio EPA Water Pollution Control Fund.

The total price tag of the project and eventual cost to each of the 110 dwellings within the community of about 300 residents was not available from village Mayor Steve Winner.

"We really don't know yet. With the cost of everything rising right now, I don't feel comfortable guessing at this point," he said.

Heather Lauer, spokeswoman for the Ohio EPA, said the project should be completed by 2010, although an exact deadline hasn't been set.

Fanning/Howey Associates of Celina are the engineers for the project. Bids for contractors have yet to go out, Winner said. His main concern right now is obtaining enough funding to get the project completed.

The village, to date, has netted about $500,000 in state and federal funds and are awaiting news on other grant applications that were filed since the project kicked off more than two years ago, Winner said.

The majority of the septic systems in the village allow partially-treated wastewater to flow into storm sewers. The sewers discharge to unnamed tributaries of Mile Creek, which is a Loramie Creek tributary, the EPA said. As a water resource, Mile Creek is used for warmwater aquatic habitat, primary human contact and agricultural and industrial water supplies.

Recent testing has revealed that Mile Creek is not attaining its standards for warmwater habitat, Lauer said. The Ohio EPA and the Darke County Health Department have encouraged village authorities to take the necessary steps to eliminate the water pollution and potential public health threat.

The village's proposed water treatment system will include a lagoon to be built at the corner of Mangen and Darke-Mercer County Line roads. The lagoon will be shared with the neighboring villages of North Star and Yorkshire, who also are in the process of replacing their on-site systems.

"Osgood is taking the lead on this," Winner said. "The state and government like the idea of the three of us going together."

Yorkshire is about 1 mile from Osgood; the corporation limit of North Star is about 4 miles away.

Sewage lines already have been mapped out in Osgood and the design of the lagoon is nearly complete, he added. A village meeting will be announced in the near future to give property owners an opportunity to hear the status of the project, Winner said.

Residents most likely will be required to pay a one-time hook-up fee, a short-term monthly fee to pay back the EPA loan and the long-term monthly fee for the actual sewage treatment, the mayor said.