8/17/2010 SEWER COMMISSION Minutes

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2— B. Small Diameter Gravity Sewers Conveying Partiallystewater The innovative and alternative technology provisions of the Municipal Waste- water Treatment Construction Grant Amendments of 1981 (Public Law 97-117) provide ,for Federal. grant bonuses for eligible costs associated with small diameter gravity sewers serving small communities and conveying partially or fully treated wastewater. Septic tax-At effluent is considered partially treated wastewater, and the costs for design and construction of treatment works which collect and convey it for additional centralized treatment are eligible for a Federal grant bonus' provided that all requirements further detailed in this Technical Information Pamphlet are met. Alternative technology grant bonuses for those costs associated with the trans- port or treatment of fully or partially treated wastewater may be provided only if the project serves a small community defined as follows: The small community is defined by 40 GFR 35-2005(38) as any municipality with a population of 3,500 or less or highly dispersed sections of larger munici- palities as determined by the United States Environmental Protection Agency's Regional Administrator. In regard to the first provisions any city, town or village with an existing population of less than 3,500 qualifies. Moreovery any public body with apopulation less than 3,500 and included within the purview of an intermunicipal agency may qualify. The second provision gives the Regional Administrator a wide latitude for including within the small community definition, outlying more sparsely developed portions of larger municipalities. If noriconventional systems are planned for certain sparsely developed portions of a larger municipality (existing population over 3,500*), then each of these portions could be defined as a small community for the pur- pose of alternative system funding. Thus, a service area or grantee could contain several small communities whatever the total population figure. It is suggested that any such area with a density of two households per acre or less could be considered sparsely developed. The Recommended Standards for Sewage Works - 1978 Edition - Great Lakes-Upper Mississippi River Board of State Sanitary Engineers (GLUMRB), in Sections 24.31 and 24-32, does not stipulate minimum slopes for pipe diameters less than eight (8) inches. Furthermore, minimum slopes are detailed for pipes conveying raw sewage, not settled sewage, as would normally be the case of small diameter gravity sewers eligible for innovative or alternative funding. While paragraphs (A) and (B), which follow, are intended to apply generally to all situations involving piping of septic tank effluents, paragraphs (A) and (B) specify the eligibility criteria for alternative and innovative technology respectively as defined by 40 OR 35. (A) Small diameter gravity sewers conveying partially or fully treated waste- water will be considered acceptable if they are designed and constructed to give mean velocities, when flowing full, of not less than 1.5 feet per second based