Tiffin looks to start over on a long-term control plan for the city's sewer systems, City Engineer Curtis Eagle said.
The city's original long-term control plan included separating the entire city's sewer systems over a 15- to 20-year period, and would include tearing up the downtown area, which could hurt the businesses located in the area.
"I think if we go through and look at some things, and fine-tune it, we can come up with a better plan," he said. "And maybe save some money, and have more of a effective sewer plan in the city, as well as prevent having to tear the whole down town."
Eagle said eventually the downtown area will have some work done, but he said it should not be as significant as the original plan.
The city has begun some flow monitoring and has installed monitors at several locations throughout the downtown area, and will collect data for three months.
The city also will conduct rainfall event data collection, to see which rainfalls cause overflows in which sewers, Eagle said.
He said he city also is doing a study at the sewer treatment plant to see what has to be done to increase the capacity of the plant.
"In order to not completely separate the downtown, we're going to have to transport more flows to the treatment plant, so we're going to have to have a higher capacity at the treatment plant," Eagle said. "Right now, the study is pretty much wrapping up on that."
In June, the city is going to amend its current plan to get back into compliance with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. Once that's done, Eagle said, the city will advertise requests for quotations for an engineering firm to look at the whole city, and update the plan regarding the downtown.
"There's different phases and events, but eventually it'll all come to a head when we start to do the overall revamping of our plan," Eagle said.
