By Jennifer Edwards
The Cincinnati Enquirer

MARIEMONT - Village leaders have authorized the start of an archaeological study to see if there are Indian artifacts in an area that will be dug up for a sewer project.

But worries over trees are delaying the $9 million project, which was scheduled to begin in June.

"We are hoping to turn this thing around very quickly and have it bid in late June," said Bob Campbell, deputy director of the Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati. "We would have liked to have that thing on the street for bid by now. Mariemont is delaying us."

The sewer district is federally required to install a new sewer line in the area to halt leaks.

The work is expected to last just over two years and run along Wooster Pike from Fairfax to Mariemont, where a 5,800-foot-long sewer line will replace older ones.

But the job means about 20 of the old lace bark elm trees along Wooster that form a canopy entrance into Mariemont will be ripped out.

After dozens of residents and Mariemont Councilman Doug Adams objected, the sewer district has agreed to have a consultant study traffic patterns along Wooster in an effort to save the trees.

The deadline for the project is July 31, 2006, and the work was to have begun by June, but now that's impossible, Campbell said.

Mariemont Mayor Dan Policastro is frustrated by the delay. The village shouldn't block the project from starting, he says, noting that heavy rains now appear to come every spring, backing up into residents' basements.

There also are concerns over raw sewage spewing into Whiskey Run Creek that flows through Dogwood Park and eventually empties into the Little Miami River.

"We have to do something to make our sewers better," Policastro said. "The most important thing to me and this administration is our sewers and our water problems. If we fight (the sewer district) every step of the way, we'll never get any progress here."

But Adams wants the sewer district to consider a plan that would save most of the trees.

The sewer district has offered to replace the larger trees with smaller ones and compensate the village for the difference, but Adams says that's not good enough.

"There is no reason for them to tear out the trees when an alternative has been presented that saves all but two to three trees out of the median," he said.

Adams also contends the sewer project won't solve basement backups in Mariemont, caused by the current sewage system. It also won't remove raw sewage from the creek because there are leaks coming from upstream.

Campbell said the project would only resolve overflows in Dogwood Park.

"It is not designed to eliminate septic tank discharges," he said.

The sewer district has a program that targets basement backups caused by inadequacy in the public sewers, he added.

E-mail jedwards@enquirer.com.