By Cindi Andrews
The Cincinnati Enquirer

GREEN TWP. - A grass-roots group that wants to stop a $14 million sewer project in western Hamilton County will take its case to county commissioners today - armed with a new analysis that contends the project will cost all county sewer users.

At issue is the Metropolitan Sewer District's effort to build six miles of sewer lines along Wesselman and Harrison roads in Green, Miami and Colerain townships. Poor soil conditions have delayed the project by years and increased the cost by millions of dollars.

"It doesn't seem to me there's any reason to spend millions on a sewer line that's not needed out here," said Tim Mara, spokesman for Concerned Citizens of Western Hamilton County.

The group has long opposed the Wesselman sewer line as a threat to the environment and the area's rural character. Now, an economic analysis commissioned by the group says it doesn't make financial sense, either.

The project will produce less than $11.8 million in savings and income over 30 years, economist Michael Kavanaugh contended in the analysis, leaving ratepayers to pick up $2.2 million of the costs. That's assuming 3,600 new homes are built along the planned sewer line - a number at least one zoning official has called too high.

The sewer district's internal analysis, completed two years ago, indicates the Wesselman project would more than pay for itself. But Deputy Director Bob Campbell agreed Tuesday with Kavanaugh's assertion that the district's estimates did not include extra construction that would be required to attain $1.4 million in projected savings.

Kavanaugh also discounted $7.6 million in savings the district projected it would get by closing a small treatment plant and sending all waste to a larger one on Taylor Creek. Campbell defended those savings, saying it would eliminate duplication of labor, electricity and other expenses.

Commissioners could vote today on the sewer district's 2004 budget. Commissioner Todd Portune has urged that the Wesselman project be canceled, saying sewer users' rates wouldn't have to rise as much that way. So far, however, he does not have a second vote.

Commissioners' meeting, 9:30 a.m. today, 138 E. Court St., sixth floor, downtown Cincinnati

E-mail candrews@enquirer.com