Jeff Digs Project
Jeff Digs is the city’s solution to Downtown Jeffersonville’s Combined Sewer Overflow problems.
What is a Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO)?
The first sewers were constructed in Jeffersonville in approximately 1900. As was common practice at the time, these sewers were built as combined sewers – a sewer system that carries both wastewater and stormwater in the same pipe.
As is typical in many CSO communities, Jeffersonville’s combined sewers are located primarily in the older, downtown area of the city – with approximately 989 acres spanning from Main Street west to the city’s corporate limits with the Town of Clarksville being served by combined sewers.
Fast forward to today, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has required the City of Jeffersonville to control the sewer overflows to the Ohio River and the Jeff Digs project will do just that.
Why is the EPA involved?
In August 2009, the Jeffersonville Sanitary Sewer Board ratified a Consent Decree with the EPA, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM). The Consent Decree was accepted by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana in November 2009.
The Consent Decree is a federally enforceable, legally binding agreement that resolves alleged violations of the Clean Water Act for untreated overflows from Jeffersonville’s combined sewer system.
What is the project route?
Work begins at the intersection of 8th and Ohio. It makes its way over to Wall Street via Spring and 7th, runs south along Wall Street to Chestnut, and then heads east along Chestnut to Graham.
What will construction look like?
The depth of the dig will vary along the route, ranging from as shallow as five feet to as deep as twenty-five feet.
Construction should all happen within the Right of Way or easement areas. Most properties will be receiving new sewer service connections to their homes or buildings, as well as new curbs and sidewalks along their frontages. All property and yards should be restored prior to finishing the project.
FAQ
Notification letters from the City have already been sent out to residents that are directly adjacent to the project corridor, and further communication will come from the Contractor as the project proceeds.
Even as work is underway on your street, you should be able to maintain vehicular access to your homes most of the time. The Contractor has committed to working closely with residents so that their routines will be impacted as minimally as possible.
Residents should be able to park their cars within the same block that they live on, hopefully close to their homes. There may be times that the construction work will affect this accommodation, but this will be communicated to the residents prior to the work commencing.
You should not have issues getting to your home.
Residents should be able to place their garbage and recycling receptacles in the same places that they’ve been placing them. The Contractor intends to leave the roadways open to local residents and service vehicles for the entirety of the project.
Some work will have to be performed in your yard, but it should all happen within the Right of Way or easement areas. Most properties will be receiving new sewer service connections to their homes or buildings, as well as new curbs and sidewalks along their frontages. All property and yards should be restored prior to finishing the project.
You shouldn’t notice your sewer service being affected. Indiana American Water Company is completing a water main upgrade and relocation in association with the sewer project, and it’s possible that you could be without water service for short periods of time.
This project is not intended as a solution to flooding. Its purpose is to reduce sewage overflows to the Ohio River and Cane Run. However, we feel that a side effect of the new infrastructure will be a greater capacity for stormwater runoff, and this should reduce flooding in some areas of downtown.
The depth of the dig will vary along the route, ranging from as shallow as five feet to as deep as twenty-five feet.
The hours of operation are Monday -Friday 7 am to 7 pm.