29th Street Ballroom
Why Has the City Taken So Long …?
RECEIVED Mon., July 28, 2008
Dear Editor,
Would the Chronicle please look into why it is taking years for the city of Austin to come into compliance with the Environmental Protection Agency Administrative Order requiring the city to "eliminate sanitary sewer overflows" from its wastewater collection system by Dec. 31, 2007. The city did not begin construction on any of these projects until 2007 (even though the EPA AO was issued in 1999), when the city was threatened with imposition of fines by the EPA. I am attaching a link to an article from 2004 that outlines the history of the wastewater problem and what the city was supposedly doing about it: www.allbusiness.com/real-estate-rental-leasing/rental-leasing/139763-1.html.
Those of us who live in the area bounded by Lady Bird Lake, 38th Street (on both sides of MoPac), and east to I-35 have been severely impacted by the city's failure to complete these sewer projects. I cannot get out of my neighborhood without encountering blocked roadways to the south, west, and east. The contractor uses neighborhood parks (Palma Plaza triangle on West Lynn is an example) as unsightly storage areas for sewer construction material. Martin Luther King Boulevard has been torn up and limited to westbound-only traffic for nearly a year, with no discernible progress. The contractor (or whoever it is that is supposed to be working on these projects) never finishes the work in one area before tearing up another.
How much is this costing Austin taxpayers? When, if ever, will the project be finished? Apparently, the City Council is not concerned by the continuing EPA violation.
Would the Chronicle please look into why it is taking years for the city of Austin to come into compliance with the Environmental Protection Agency Administrative Order requiring the city to "eliminate sanitary sewer overflows" from its wastewater collection system by Dec. 31, 2007. The city did not begin construction on any of these projects until 2007 (even though the EPA AO was issued in 1999), when the city was threatened with imposition of fines by the EPA. I am attaching a link to an article from 2004 that outlines the history of the wastewater problem and what the city was supposedly doing about it: www.allbusiness.com/real-estate-rental-leasing/rental-leasing/139763-1.html.
Those of us who live in the area bounded by Lady Bird Lake, 38th Street (on both sides of MoPac), and east to I-35 have been severely impacted by the city's failure to complete these sewer projects. I cannot get out of my neighborhood without encountering blocked roadways to the south, west, and east. The contractor uses neighborhood parks (Palma Plaza triangle on West Lynn is an example) as unsightly storage areas for sewer construction material. Martin Luther King Boulevard has been torn up and limited to westbound-only traffic for nearly a year, with no discernible progress. The contractor (or whoever it is that is supposed to be working on these projects) never finishes the work in one area before tearing up another.
How much is this costing Austin taxpayers? When, if ever, will the project be finished? Apparently, the City Council is not concerned by the continuing EPA violation.
Carla Cox