The City of Terre Haute has decided it can no longer afford to keep flushing money down the waste water treatment project on Prairieton Road.

During the latest phase of a $120 million dollar, and growing, Waste Water Treatment expansion the construction company hired to build a lift station pumped contaminated water into a holding pond and killed all the fish in it.

The EPA determined that creosote from the former Railroad Tie Factory located next door would need to removed from the ground water before it could be dumped into the Wabash River.

City Engineers and City Leaders were surprised that ground water could be contaminated, but vowed to hire another company to clean the water for what they hoped would be $5 or $6million dollars.

https://terrehautenews.net/2019/12/18/sewer-plant-hits-bad-water-terre-haute-estimates-2-5-million-dollars-in-additional-expenses-to-54-million-sewer-plant-upgrade/

The contract with the construction company meanwhile, was costing the city $30,000 everyday to idle a crane waiting to be used during the construction.

The Terre Haute Sanitary Board agreed Tuesday to halt construction. The City has spent $18 million dollars on trying to clean contaminated water and construction cost and does not have the bond capacity to keep putting money into this project.

City Leaders believe that nobody could have ever expected ground water to be found along a river property located next to a creosote plant to be contaminated.

Nobody has suggested that prior to starting the $54 million dollar project that a hundred dollar groundwater test would have prevented this.

Terre Haute Residents should expect a rate hike within the coming months.

The Casino and Convention Center money will soon be able to get toilets flushing again in Terre Haute.