Ten Basins, Eight Cities, Twenty-Eight Consultants, One Client: How the City of Omaha Developed and Analyzed Control Alternatives to Develop a Long Term Control Plan

In 2006, the City of Omaha (City) undertook a comprehensive process to develop and analyze Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) alternatives for ten basins in the 43 square mile Combined Sewer System (CSS). This CSS serves Omaha and seven other surrounding communities. In October 2006, a basin consultant was assigned to each of the ten basins for simultaneous analysis. Each basin consultant then teamed with other local and national consultants to quickly expand the consultant field to more than 28 total consultants working on the project. A Program Management Team (PMT) of CH2M Hill, HDR, and Lamp Rynearson & Associates was tasked with executing and managing the program to meet the mandated deadline of October 1, 2007 for the Substantively Completed Long Term Control Plan (SCLTCP) and October 1, 2009 for the Final Long Term Control Plan (LTCP).The process was further challenged as the results of this analysis needed to meet regulatory requirements, be affordable to rate payers, and be acceptable to the community. The process used for the basin alternative evaluation which occurred from October 2006 through October 2007 included step-by-step input from City personnel, citizens of Omaha, and basin consultants. The SCLTCP that documented the preliminary system-wide alternatives to be implemented was successfully submitted to the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality on October 1, 2007.