By Cindi Andrews
The Cincinnati Enquirer

A court-ordered plan to spend $1.5 billion or more fixing Hamilton County's aging sewer system appears to be on the verge of approval, with one addition: an ombudsman to make sure hundreds of homeowners get speedy relief from overflows of raw sewage in their basements.

PROPOSALS

Proposed agreements with federal and state agencies to clean up sewage overflows in Hamilton County require the county-run Metropolitan Sewer District to: • Implement a program to stop sewage flooding in 1,000 or more homes. The program - already in place - also provides free cleanup of flooding and reimbursement for damages caused by the sewer district. • Finish plans by June 2006 outlining how and when all sewage overflows will be fixed. • Complete construction by February 2022 unless the expected cost exceeds $1.5 billion, in which case officials may ask for additional time. • Begin work to end dozens of the worst overflows even before the 2006 plans are finalized. • Pay $1.2 million in penalties to federal and state agencies and $5.3 million for local projects to improve the environment.

At a hearing Tuesday, U.S. District Judge S. Arthur Spiegel all but said he would approve a plan negotiated over the past several years by the state and federal environmental agencies, Hamilton County and Cincinnati.

"I don't want any more phases of litigation," Spiegel said. "We've had enough litigation. I want some remedy here for people who are suffering."

The plan is intended to stem the more than 6 billion gallons of raw sewage that spill from the Metropolitan Sewer District's deteriorating, overloaded sewer lines into streams and basements each year.

It also is expected to triple sewer users' rates in the next 18 years, from an average of about $350 a year.

The plan is the culmination of a federal lawsuit filed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Ohio EPA and the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission in early 2002. to stop illegal pollution by the county-owned, city-run sewer district. Instead of going to trial - or having another lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club go forward - county and city officials hammered out the plan on behalf of the sewer district. Called a consent decree, it's binding once the judge signs it.

The decree requires the sewer district to come up with specific plans and timetables by 2006 to fix overflows by 2022. At Spiegel's urging, the decree also includes a program to help the 1,000 or more property owners countywide who get sewage backups into their basements.

The program, which began Jan. 1, for the first time provides 24-hour staffing to take complaints and dispatch crews to investigate the problems. .

The district spent almost $1.3 million on the basement program in the first four months, Peter Murphy, the attorney for the county and city, told Spiegel. More than 600 calls came in during several days of rain the first week of January.

The district is also using new technology to fix basements that repeatedly flood. Two small pumps were just installed in a Cheviot house at a cost of about $40,000, Murphy said. Construction has begun on two more homes and is in the design phase for 11 more.

Still, the Sierra Club urged the judge to appoint an ombudsman to make sure officials continue to make basement sewage problems a priority after years of ignoring them.

"There's going to be a tendency to revert to their previous behavior," Sierra Club attorney David Altman said.

E-mail candrews@enquirer.com