Saving $120 million with local ingenuity

Kitty Hawk, N.C. Menlo Park, N.J. Silicon Valley, Calif. These places are associated with life-changing innovations – manned flight, electric lights and the microcomputer. Now, people can add South Bend to the list of game-changing places.

South Bend is becoming the world’s first city to use technology to control sewer overflows. This will save $120 million in avoided capital costs.

The City of South Bend has found a high-tech solution to a national environmental challenge – overflows of combined storm and sanitary sewers. This challenge is projected to cost $50.6 billion for nearly 800 U.S. cities to meet federal environmental mandates.

A few of this summer’s construction detours around South Bend are related to the City’s installation of nine “smart valves” with motorized controls to open and close sewer lines.

“This is the last step of a six-year journey,” said Mayor Stephen J. Luecke. “South Bend is becoming the world’s first city to address combined sewer overflows (CSOs) through low-cost technology, rather than relying exclusively on traditional high-cost infrastructure.”

By using this breakthrough technology, which maximizes the use of existing capacity within City sewers, the City can reduce the need to build separated sewers or new facilities that capture, convey or store sewage. This will save a projected $120 million in avoided capital costs.

With the Combined Sewer Overflow Network (CSOnet), South Bend won’t need to build as many high-cost, high-volume facilities or completely separate sewers. Already, City crews monitor flow levels in real time throughout South Bend’s 500-mile sewer network. When construction is completed this year, South Bend will have remote control of combined storm water and sewage flow at key control points in the sewer system.

“This maximizes the storage capacity in our existing system,” Luecke said. “CSOnet will keep sewage out the St. Joseph River and your basement.”

CSOnet results from a partnership involving researchers at the University of Notre Dame and Purdue University along with entrepreneurs at EmNet, a South Bend company. In 2004, the City of South Bend provided financial support for the research and, more importantly, served as a laboratory for testing new ideas and concepts. A 2005 “proof of concept” pilot demonstration, with support from the state’s 21st Century Technology Fund, proved the project’s economic feasibility. In 2008, the City deployed 110 wireless sensors underneath “smart” manhole covers citywide. These small computers let crews monitor 110 strategic points in the sewer in real time.

In 2009, this monitoring reduced dry-weather overflows resulting from plugged lines by 66 percent. The 24/7 data, refreshed from all locations every 5 minutes, allows the City of South Bend to reallocate crews to proactively inspect, clear or repair key blockage points in our sewers.

“With the new smart valves, we will dynamically allocate capacity based on varying storm intensity, much like traffic is limited at freeway entrances to control congestion,” Luecke said.

CSOnet has great potential for replication in other communities – a transformative technology much like air travel, lighting or personal computers. The growth of South Bend’s EmNet could bring new jobs and tax revenue. If this example is implemented in other communities, cities worldwide will recognize South Bend for a green, high-tech innovation saving billions.

For more information about the City of South Bend’s long-term control plan, click here.