In January 2001, 3 Rivers Wet Weather invited the elected officials of the 83 ALCOSAN communities to participate in three geographically defined planning basins—the Eastern, Northern and Southern Basin Groups. All three basin groups, whose membership included at least two representatives (primarily elected officials) from each community and municipal authority in the basin, met regularly to learn about new regulations, share information and resources, and communicate with regulatory agencies through a unified voice.
The Basin Groups were created with the following goals:
In early 2004, after nearly two years of working together with the regulatory agencies, the basin group communities signed municipal consent orders that require assessment, repair and long-term wet weather planning activities spanning through 2015. Shortly after municipalities signed the order, 3RWW started meeting regularly with municipal engineers and managers in each of the three basins to begin regional compliance activities, such as manhole mapping and flow monitoring.
In 2008, ALCOSAN received a federal consent decree that requires the publicly owned treatment plant (POTW) to work with its service area communities in completing feasibility studies and long-term wet weather control planning. Through the basin group process, 3 Rivers Wet Weather created and facilitates a group of basin engineers in Feasibility Study Work Group meetings to examine alternatives for reducing, storing, conveying or treating wastewater flow in their municipal collection systems. Due to the complexity of the feasibility studies and long-term planning challenges, the Eastern, Northern and Southern Basin groups have been further defined by ALCOSAN into seven planning basins.
3 Rivers is committed to supporting the communities throughout the ALCOSAN service area in the collaborative process required to develop a long-term viable wet weather plan. The basin groups have served not only as an effective vehicle for inter-municipal cooperation, but they also lay the foundation for consolidation of the sewer collection system, a critical key for a cost-effective, sustainable solution to the sewage overflow problem.
Click on a basin group below for a list of communities.
Eastern Basin Group Communities
Northern Basin Group Communities
Southern Basin Group Communities
Click on a planning basin below for a list of communities.