PEORIA, Ill. – The price tag for required work on Peoria’s combined sewer overflow project has significantly gone up.
The city has until 2039 to complete projects to reduce discharges from the combined sewer overflow. That’s after the city was found in violation of the Clean Water Act in 2006.
An agreement was reached in 2021 to fix the issues. But on Tuesday, the city council learned that the cost of the project increased by $200 million, to a total of around $309 million.
Third District Councilman Tim Riggenbach tells WMBD’s “The Phil Luciano Show” that inflation was a factor, as well as having to build a more than six million gallon overflow tank near the Cedar Street Bridge with a price tag of around $60 million.
“It’s rare that a councilmember is speechless, so I think the word I used was flabbergasted,” Riggenbach said. “That’s just totally beyond what one would expect.”
The city has proposed some green infrastructure solutions to the problem, but Riggenbach says the city is out of sandy soil that would make some of those solutions work.
Riggenbach says the increased cost of the project will most likely be covered by sewer bill increases. But he says one potential positive is a bond through the Illinois EPA, with an interest rate at 2%.
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