City officials broke ground for a new water tank project in Simmons Field.
Construction for the new, 13 million gallon underground water tank is underway, after years of planning and negotiations with the EPA. When finished, the tank will be 400 feet long, 200 feet wide, and 25 feet deep. The project is expected to take about three years to complete, to help reduce the number of overflows that happen in the Ottawa River after heavy rains.
"The river gets high and it overflows - we call it a combined sewer overflow - and we have to reduce that via our consent degree, the flow that we have going into the river every year," said Mike Caprella, Utilities Director for the City of Lima. "By building this tank, our overflows will be reduced to an average of five on a normal year, so we’re going to go from maybe 40 overflows to five?."
Officials say that the 40 million dollar project is the largest financial project for the City of Lima.
