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Communities in northeastern Tippecanoe County are one step closer to a better waste water treatment system. This comes after a contract was approved at this morning's Commissioners meeting. In 2015 it was brought to public attention that waste water was making its way into the Buck Creek.

TIPPECANOE COUNTY, Ind. (WLFI) — Communities in northeastern Tippecanoe County are one step closer to a better waste water treatment system. This comes after a contract was approved at Monday morning's Commissioners meeting.

In 2015, it was brought to public attention that waste water was making its way into the Buck Creek. After eight years, these communities in Tippecanoe County are one step closer to an answer.

Tippecanoe County Commissioners Tracy Brown(left), Tom Murtaugh and David Byers sit during Monday's County Commissioners meeting in downtown Lafayette. A contract was approved during the meeting for an engineering firm to evaluate waste water management solutions in the northeastern part of the county.

What makes this situation unique is a steering committee made up of people directly impacted by these waste water management problems. Commissioner Tracy Brown thanked those people at this morning's meeting.

"The steering committee [have] been critical because they are from those communities," Brown said after the meeting wrapped up. "They can receive information and share information. And I think we have a stronger and, probably more robust, opportunity to be successful when we include the people who are going to be impacted by whatever we choose to do there."

Brown said this issue is not unique to the communities of Americus, Buck Creek and Colburn. He said waste water finds its way into natural waterways often. Especially in older communities that were developed when outhouses were the main solution to dealing with waste water.

$7.5 million of American Rescue Plan Act Funding is set aside for waste water services in that area. But, before that can happen, Wet Environmental Engineering needs to do an evaluation and recommend a path forward.

The contract inked Monday makes sure Wet Environmental Engineering will be done with their evaluation by October.

"Our goal is to drive the costs for ongoing maintenance and operation [as low] as possible so that the bill someone gets in the mail every month, or in their email every month, is something that they can actually afford and something that's reasonable," Brown said.

The ARPA funding for this project must be spent by the end of 2026. Despite this quick three-year turnaround, Brown says the engineers are confident the project will get done. A previous estimated budget for this project was about $10 million.

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