State Rep. Sharon Chung of Bloomington is pushing a bill to expand the reach of the community's wastewater treatment facilities to boost economic development.
Chung said she would like to see the Bloomington-Normal Water Reclamation District accept wastewater from a 50-mile radius and sell treated water to any private entity in McLean County.
This would amend a more than 100-year-old law that allowed only Decatur to send treated wastewater and receive wastewater for treatment within a 50-mile radius to the private sector.
The new bill would let Bloomington-Normal do the same. As of now, BNWRD can only sell and receive within city limits.
Chung said the new bill would help the community save on drinking water, as it wouldn’t have to put as much of it into construction and other projects.
“We can use the treated wastewater to be used for other sources, other uses, other resources, and then that the drinking water can be actually used for human consumption and drinking,” Chung said. “So, anything to help divert that and to help keep the drinking water, because it is a somewhat finite resource to be used for human consumption.”
Chung also suggested the expansion could attract new development to her district such as data centers which use water to both power and cool itself.
“To bring, hopefully, a data center to the area to help entice them to come would be great,” Chung said. “That also helps the economy. And they can sell this water, it can bring money back into the sanitary district.”
This comes as the Bloomington-Normal Wastewater Reclamation District works through a 10-year, $300 million wastewater treatment infrastructure upgrade plan. That includes upgrading old treatment stations to meet federal limits of phosphorus and improving overall maintenance of equipment.
BNWRD executive director Tim Ervin said the improvements provided the sanitary district with momentum to seek an expanded reach.
“It gave us confidence because currently we have $60 million in infrastructure underway, and this is as part of a long-term plan to modernize the wastewater infrastructure, not only in Bloomington Normal, but on the outskirts of each city and entity,” Ervin said.
Ervin also said this expansion could lead to future business in the region.
“It provides opportunities for existing or future industries or commercial businesses coming into Bloomington, Normal, McLean County to purchase our clean wastewater,” Ervin said. “But it also provides the opportunity for the district to take sewage from outside of our corporate limits and put it through our system to clean it and release it back into the water cycle.”
But Ervin said the major goal of the legislation to help keep water cycles flowing.
“I believe this bill will always help protect the water cycle,” Ervin said. “The primary mission of the district is to protect public health and protect the environment, and this bill is set up to do both.”
The bill has made it out of a House committee.
There is also a version of the bill in the Senate being pushed by Democratic Sen. Dave Koehler.
