EWSU to shut down septic, grease waste receiving station next year

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WFIE) — Local septic and grease haulers were recently made aware that the receiving station they bring waste to, which is located at EWSU’s water treatment plant, will no longer be available to them.

Haulers work to dispose of septic and grease waste from local homes, restaurants, businesses, and more.

For decades, they’ve disposed of the waste at EWSU’s water treatment plant.

But haulers recently learned, EWSU is shutting down that receiving station January 1.

“We’re here daily Monday through Friday. We’ve been doing this, I’ve been operating this business for nine years. And this is where we’ve depended on. It’s always been available,” James Wittman, owner of Tri-State Grease and Septic Pumping, said.

For months, EWSU officials have let haulers know they planned to stop receiving septic waste.

But haulers received a letter just over a week ago saying they will include grease waste in that plan too, effectively shutting down for good.

Officials say the station is in great need of repair and costs too much to operate, and they don’t want to increase customer rates to fix it.

“We need to find solutions to this, but we also need to run our utility in a manner that’s treating our customers fairly,” EWSU Executive Director Vic Kelson said.

But the haulers say, if they have to take the waste somewhere else, they will have to charge their customers potentially thousands of more dollars.

“That would require us to truck it out of state or hours away which would increase the cost for our customers,” Wittman said. “The residents, probably triple at least, at a minimum.”

Both haulers and state health officials warn if people can no longer afford to get their septic tanks pumped due to this change, the damage could be catastrophic.

Both sides of the issue are hoping to work out a resolution sooner rather than later.

This could include haulers building private disposal stations or making a deal with EWSU officials to work on a regional solution.

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