Selling Overflow Control to the Public

A $729 million multi-project CSO control plan spanning two decades requires some public education. But what do you do when people aren’t attending informational meetings? You go to their homes.That’s essentially what Indiana’s Evansville Water and Sewer Utility did to educate citizens about its federally mandated CSO plan, which involves new sewers and pumping stations; cleaning up and reducing the size of an unsightly, odorous slough now used to capture CSOs; improvements to wastewater treatment plants; and several green infrastructure installations.“At first we tried the conventional public meeting approach,” says utilities director Allen Mounts.But it wasn’t effective.“At best we had