Drilling into Indianapolis’ Problems with Unsewered Areas through Non-Gravity Sewer Options

Indianapolis, Indiana, currently has approximately 16,000 homes served by on-site septic systems. The soils in Indianapolis are not ideally suited for septic systems, which in turn lead to high failure rates and can result in health and environmental hazards. Citizens Energy Group (Citizens), the owner and operator of the wastewater system, is improving the environment for all Indianapolis residents by extending sewer systems into high priority neighborhoods through the Septic Tank Elimination Program (STEP). STEP has evolved significantly since its inception in 2005. The evolution has focused on increasing customer satisfaction, increasing customer connection rates, and reducing overall project cost. Resulting from the program’s improvements, Citizens has experienced increased voluntary connection rate by over 50% as well as overall project cost reductions, which has reduced the financial burden on customers. This paper discusses the evolution of programs in Indianapolis focused on mitigating septic systems and Citizens’ current method of providing new sanitary sewers to unsewered areas.