Silt mess may cost Lake Zurich $2 million
The dust may have settled from the Route 22 bypass construction in Lake Zurich, but the cleanup of dirt from the project remains a problem for the village.
And that problem, village officials learned Monday night, could eventually cost more than $2 million to remedy.
For nearly a year, the village has been negotiating with the Illinois Department of Transportation on the cleanup/restoration of Mionske Pond.
Silt runoff from IDOT's Route 22 bypass construction site and an on-site detention basin over several months starting in March 2006 compounded an existing sediment problem in Mionske Pond, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency determined.
Water leaving Mionske Pond enters the village storm sewer system and discharges directly into the village's namesake lake.
The EPA has separately cited IDOT for the runoff, and ordered Lake Zurich to stop allowing sediment from Mionske Pond to flow into the lake. The village has until April 30 to fix the problem, but officials are planning to request an extension.
Lake Zurich and IDOT have already spent significant amounts of money on corrective measures to stop the sediment from flowing into the lake.
Village officials Monday night discussed improvements to the village's storm sewer system that could eventually end up costing the village and IDOT roughly $2 million.
The plan, recommended by village public works department, would essentially involve running a bypass storm pipe around Mionske Pond that would effectively remove the pond from the village's storm sewer system.
"The benefit of taking the pond out of the equation is that we can put a water quality structure at the outfall of the pond and limit the release (into Lake Zurich)," said Dave Heyden, village engineer and public works director.
The board approved hiring an independent consultant to evaluate the feasibility and cost of building a bypass sewer pipe around Mionske Pond. That study would include an analysis of the entire watershed and determine the volume of water going in and out of Mionske Pond. The study may cost between $40,000 and $70,000.
Mionske Pond, built in 1954 as an aesthetic wetland feature for a residential development, sits southeast of the lake. It was never meant to be a detention basin. The pond was modified over the years to allow it to filter storm water runoff from nearby land through wetland plantings before emptying into the lake.
Village officials initially estimated it would cost roughly $205,000 to dredge and restore Mionske Pond and clean up sediment from the village's storm sewer system.
The pond was dredged once before in 1994, but that may not be a viable option today because it would cost too much to maintain, Heyden said.
"The U.S. EPA has informed us that the dredging of Mionske Pond is no longer the preferred option and they would like to see the pond bypassed," Heyden said. "The requirements that the U.S. EPA was going to put on the village, if we would have dredged it, would have been very maintenance-intensive. Anytime it rained, the village would have to provide sufficient testing of all the waters upstream and downstream to show that there was no water quality violations present during each and every rain event."
If a violation was found, the village would be subject to future EPA citations.
"It's not very favorable for the village to do that," Heyden said.
Village officials said they would explore state or federal grants that could help fund the improvements, but timing may be an issue, Heyden said.
The Lake Zurich village board did not make a decision on whether to accept IDOT's offer of $119,000 to fix the sediment problem partially created by the bypass construction. Village officials said they would go back to IDOT to request additional funding.
"Maybe we should get some more cash out of IDOT," village Trustee Tom Poynton said.