BATAVIA, OH — Action by the Board of County Commissioners on March 9 brought the former village of Newtonsville a step closer to its first sewer system – a process dating back to the 1990s. Work on the project that’s coming to fruition started in 2012.

Commissioners awarded bids totaling $12.3 million to Building Crafts Inc. of Wilder, Ky., and Tribute Contracting & Consultants of South Point, Ohio for the Newtonsville-area collection system and wastewater treatment plant projects in Wayne Township. Building Crafts entered into a $6.3-million contract for the wastewater treatment plant and Tribute, $6 million for the collection system.

Currently, properties have septic systems. In October 2012, residents were notified by Clermont Public Health that a significant number of homes had failing septic systems, and sewage created a health risk. At that time, Public Health recommended a public sewer system to serve the residents in the project area.

Since then, the Clermont County Water Resources Department has completed extensive engineering fieldwork and project design. A number of public information meetings have been held.

A majority of the property owners indicated their support for a full gravity collection system, and not a hybrid collection system that had been presented to them. The hybrid collection system included a combination of conventional gravity sewers and STEP (Septic Tank Effluent Pump) to convey wastewater to the proposed wastewater treatment facility.

The treatment plant will handle 57,000 gallons per day, and includes an influent pump station and a backup power generator. The collection system includes over 17,700 feet of 8-inch gravity sewer main, manholes, and a submersible pump station.

Lyle Bloom, director, of the Clermont County Water Resources Department, said funds for the work will come from assessment of benefitted properties, the County Wastewater System Capital Improvement Fund, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) grant and loan funds, Ohio Public Works Commission (OPWC) grant funds and American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) grant funds.

The assessment for property owners totals $4.2 million, which will be funded through a USDA loan. Clermont County will contribute $1.5 million in ARPA funds to reduce the assessments and overall loan amount. That will be a 36-percent reduction in the overall assessment.

“It’s been a long project, but staying with it and paying attention to the stakeholders, you guys did a great job,” Commissioner David Painter told Bloom. “I think this one is really going to make a difference in that part of Clermont County, to actually have sewers.”

Work on the project is expected to start in March, 2022, with completion projected for July, 2023.