TERRE HAUTE, Ind – On Tuesday the Terre Haute Sanitary Board Tuesday agreed to halt construction work on the city’s new wastewater lift station amid rising costs.
The expense to remove contaminated water from city property on Prairieton Road will exceed the cap of 20 percent on project change orders. That amounts to nearly $11 million on the $54 million project.
That project was halted October 28th when hundreds of fish were killed in a contained lagoon pond. Contaminated groundwater was pumped into that pond as a contractor dug down more than 40 feet as part of the new lift station project.
The city has already paid out about $18 million to treat contaminated water and has been incurring around $30,000 in daily expenses while the project is idled.
Officials are working to come up with a plan to fix the problem.