Cedar Lake officials and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management have been working to address the town’s water system since August following a recent IDEM report that found more than a dozen deficiencies in the system.
IDEM inspected Cedar Lake water systems in October 2023 and August, and between the two reports the town’s water system seemingly worsened with the number of deficiencies increasing four times over, from three deficiencies to 14 deficiencies, according to the respective reports.
Cedar Lake Council President Nick Recupito said he received a letter from IDEM on Aug. 8 that stated the town has a problem with supplying water to the new developments that were approved from 2020 onward. In response, Recupito, councilman Richard Thiel, councilman Greg Parker and other town officials met with IDEM officials in September to discuss the water issues, Thiel said.
At the meeting, IDEM officials expressed concern about the town’s water capacity given the amount of users already on the system and the number of homes under construction that will require water and sewer usage, Thiel said.
“Kind of an early warning, red flag kind of issue. Like I tell a lot of people, as far as how we got here, I would say the overdeveloping or fast growth — which is nice, it’s growing – however, it outgrew the infrastructure,” Thiel said. “How we got here? Lack of planning.”
Cedar Lake has two water systems, on the east side and on the west side, and each system has an elevated tower and multiple wells, Recupito said. Each system has multiple wells that supply water to each tower, he said.
The two systems aren’t connected, Recupito said. But, they serve about 35% of the town’s population, with many homes still on private wells from when the town was unincorporated, he said.
Town officials are working “around the clock” to address the water issues with IDEM, Recupito said.
“We just moved too fast, and now the chickens came home to roost. I believe it was known internally that there were water problems for a few years, and I really don’t know what the answer was going to be,” Recupito said. “It all stems from planning that was lacking.”
Lake County Councilman Randy Niemeyer, who served on the Cedar Lake Town Council from 2010 through 2022, said the council has little to do with development because the town plan commission reviews those proposals before council final approval. With each development, engineers approve water connections for development, he said.
Niemeyer, who served as council president for 10 years, said when he left the council there were 1,400 sewer taps and bonds were issued to repair both water systems.
“When I left the council, we were working to develop the water system,” Niemeyer said.
Earlier this month, Cedar Lake officials submitted a response with a plan to address the water issues, Thiel said.
In a statement, IDEM spokesman Barry Sneed said the department’s Office of Water Quality Drinking Water Branch has been in regular contact with Cedar Lake water works officials since its August letter.
“Cedar Lake’s response letter is currently under review by IDEM staff to assess if the plans can adequately address system capacity,” Sneed said in the statement.
IDEM reported deficiencies
When IDEM inspected Cedar Lake’s water system on Oct. 18, 2023, the inspector noted three deficiencies. The first was that the system had a greater than 25% water loss, and that the system does not regularly track water loss.
The October 2023 report also found the water system has a valve maintenance and replacement program in place but not enough staff to “regularly exercise valves.” The inspector recommended that sufficient staff are hired to work the valve maintenance system, according to the report.
Finally, the October 2023 report found that the overflow pipes in the ground storage tanks do not have mesh screens as required.
An IDEM inspector came to Cedar Lake on August 20, 2024 and found 14 deficiencies, which still included the system having a greater than 25% water loss. The inspector noted that while the town completed a water loss audit, it conducted it for the entire town and did not separate out the two distribution systems and treatment plant, which prevents the system from recognizing leaks in each individual system.
The inspector found that the wells for the distribution system do not provide an adequate quantity of water, and that the water system consistently experienced pressure drops. The water supply in the tower was found to be depleted, according to the report.
“The system must install wells to supply an adequate amount of water for the current distribution system and for any plans of future expansion,” the inspector wrote. “The wells are unable to keep up with the demand at times and the storage tower is regularly emptied in times of high demand.”
The town water department only has two full-time employees, according to the August report, which is not enough staff to complete all necessary tasks associated with running two distribution systems. The two employees do everything from mowing the grass to taking water samples, according to the report, so more staff have to be hired.
The inspector also noted that there are two four-inch test wells that town officials drilled to investigate possible new well field sites, but that the sites won’t be used and the test wells have been left in place. The report states the wells have to be “properly abandoned” by a licensed well driller.
The town’s water system doesn’t have a valve maintenance and replacement program or a cross-connection policy in effect, according to the August report, and those systems have to be established.
The system doesn’t have a mechanism to direct water away from the base of the tower at the overflow pipe, the inspector noted in August. The report recommends the system have a splash pad or other means to direct overflow away from the base of the tower to prevent erosion.
The inspector also noted two issues with the electrical conduit: The system needs a complete seal around the electrical conduit entering the well and the electrical conduit going into the well cap is broken, which has to be fixed to prevent contaminants from entering the well, according to the August report.
The top of the well also has two deficiencies, according to the August report, the level sensing port on top of the well has to be tightly sealed to prevent contaminants from entering the well and the top of the well has several loose bolts.
Cedar Lake’s response
The town council passed a moratorium on all future development in February, Thiel said. But before that, in 2023, the town plan commission started tabling projects, he said.
“We wanted to pump the breaks this year. We did get some blow-back from certain folks. I think it went over really well with the folks in town because they’ve been fatigued by the pace of development over the years,” Recupito said.
Cedar Lake officials sent IDEM a letter, signed by Recupito, dated Nov. 15. IDEM shared a copy of that letter with the Post-Tribune.
“The conclusion of that communication from your office is that the various public water system identification numbers have reached a point where additional capacity is needed. The town acknowledges the conclusionary review position of your department,” according to the letter.
Town officials have started working with Christopher B. Burke Engineering LLC to prepare a town-wide master plan to identify short-term needs and long-term infrastructure projects “which will support sustainable growth for the town in the next 5 to 10 year period.” The main objective of the plan will be maintaining a continuous, adequate supply of water, according to the letter.
The council “will consider and act to adopt” a town-wide irrigation ban to mitigate peaking of the Westside utility that has led to low pressure alarms and the emptying of the Parrish Avenue water tower, according to the letter.
“It is contemplated and anticipated that this ban will remain in place until IDEM and town water operators are reasonably certain that causes of the large peaks have been corrected or additional improvements have been made,” according to the letter.
As further mitigation, town officials have been negotiating with commercial developers for Henn Railside PUD Project and Bultema CLBD, LLC, to install dry hydrant equipment, according to the letter. Thiel said a possible dry hydrant would use water from a retention pond.
“Anytime we have a fire in Cedar Lake and they had to go into the municipal water supply, it would drop the pressures quite a bit. A dry hydrant wouldn’t put any strain on the municipal water system,” Thiel said.
Town officials have also learned of an available location near the Henn Railside PUD Commercial Project Development site for construction of a new west-side well, according to the letter.
Further, town officials are committed to adding a qualified certified water operator “to assure compliance with applicable law and water utility extension regulations,” according to the letter.
Town officials requested that any Notice of Intent applications IDEM approves for Cedar Lake projects be considered valid permits and any pending NOI applications be reviewed, according to the letter.
Thiel said the town is in “uncharted territory” because IDEM has the ability to restrict NOI applications given the water issue.
“If someone did have a permit out there, they could rescind it if it was approved. Let’s say there was a subdivision on the south side of town that had an approved NOI but they didn’t start it yet, IDEM has the ability to rescind that just because of our situation,” Thiel said.
Moving forward, Recupito said he’d like to see developers contribute financially toward water and sewer expansion as the town addresses the water issue and looks to future developments.
“A lot of people are tired of footing the bill for all this stuff,” Recupito said. “It could have an impact on rates if that’s what the council decides to do is to increase rates in order to pay for more expansion, but … I’d like to take the approach that if people want to come into town and they want to develop, they need to contribute and not put it on the backs of current residents and business owners.”
akukulka@post-trib.com
