515 E. Main Street Van Wert, Ohio /
Phone: (419) 238-1237
 In 1995 the Wastewater
Collection Department was created by City Council in response to a need to work toward
fulfilling EPA "dry weather bypass" mandates. These mandates require the
sanitary sewer system to flow adequately so as not to spill into creeks and rivers during
normal usage, when excessive rain is not interfering with the system. In
addition, there was a need to lessen sewer backup problems, created by community expansion
and flow restrictions such as tree roots. The Jet Vac Combo truck, pictured here,
has the capacity to clean out restrictions in large sewer lines so that wastewater can
flow more efficiently.
Within the sanitary sewer system are the wastewater treatment plant (located on U. S. 127
north of Van Wert), two pumping stations, and seven smaller lift stations. The
wastewater pipe under North Washington Street is a gravity-fed pipe to the treatment
plant. This pipe drains sewage from the northeast section of town and North
Jefferson Street.
The Allingham Street and Bonnewitz Avenue pumping stations have pressurized 16-inch pipes
leading to the plant. The Allingham Street pumping station drains sewage from the
northwest section of town but west of Town Creek, including the 12-inch line leading from
Vision Industrial Park. A 36-inch sewer line leads from Fountain Park
along the east side of the creek and then north on Monroe Street up to the Bonnewitz
Avenue pumping station. This sewer main services the south end of town. The
City has seven additional lift stations throughout the community. For example, one
such lift station services Industrial Drive.
The earliest portions of the current sanitary sewer system consisted of pipes placed in
creek beds and then covered over. One such former creek ran near parts of East
Crawford Street. A second creek once crossed South Avenue and State Street, then
flowed near the present intersection of Southway and Airport Streets.
Van Wert, like most older communities, has both rain water and sewage water draining into
the sanitary sewer system. Antiquated systems such as these, and even those
developed years later, result in untreated sewer spillage directly into waterways during
heavy rains. When sanitary sewer water is at a very high pressure,
it forces sewage out through overflow pipes. Later systems drain
storm water into a separate pipe line system rather than the sanitary sewer system.
In the 1970s, federal funding provided for a number of storm sewer mains to be placed in
various parts of Van Wert. Both the <Wastewater
Collection> and <Wastewater Treatment> Web
pages describe additional efforts being made toward treating our community's waste water
properly.
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