T-L Photo/GAGE VOTA Rural Community Assistance Partnership Developmental Specialist Heidi Milner provides an update Tuesday on the timeline for completion of the Sardis and Hannibal wastewater treatment plants.

SARDIS — The first step toward halting three unincorporated communities from dumping raw and partially treated sewage into the Ohio River is complete.

The Monroe County communities are Duffy, Sardis and Hannibal, and they have been disposing of that waste in the river for decades.

The Duffy Wastewater Treatment Plant was completed in December 2024 with the Sardis and Hannibal wastewater treatment plants to soon follow.

According to Rural Community Assistance Partnership Developmental Specialist Heidi Milner, the Hannibal project will be completed in 24 more months, but the Sardis project will be completed at the end of 2027 or beginning of 2028.

To celebrate the accomplishment of completion of the first plant, representatives of the RCAP and Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and Monroe County officials hosted a ceremony Tuesday at the Sardis Community Center.

Milner took the opportunity to provide a PowerPoint presentation to update those in attendance.

“So today we’re celebrating the Duffy wastewater treatment plant that was completed in December. They are one of three communities that Ohio only manages along the Ohio River that’s been discharging raw and partially treated sewage into the Ohio River, which made it so it couldn’t be used for recreational uses,” Milner said. “It was contaminating the waterway, so they were under civil force from the Ohio Attorney General’s Office and were under enforcement by the Ohio EPA. So this has been going on for at least 60 years and is a huge step forward, because Duffy is done.”

She added that the celebration served as a thank-you for all of the Ohio departments that joined forces to get the project on the right track.

“It’s a celebration of all of the Ohio departments, technical service providers, ODOT and everyone from Monroe County that has contributed,” she said. ” In the last five years we have come from zero to having one done, one under construction and one partially under construction. It has been 60 years in the making and it took every single department that we have, every state of Ohio agency we have pulled in.”

She added that she believes the reason so much has been accomplished in the past five years is due to all of the departments coming together, as well as the support from residents of Monroe County.

The reason these three communities were dumping raw sewage into the Ohio River is reportedly due to the small lot sizes in the area and the density of homes and businesses, as well as the quality of soil that the structures were built on.

“There is a significant amount of unpermitted discharge of raw and partially treated sewage to the Ohio River and its tributaries impacting recreational use attainment, unsanitary conditions and providing increased nutrients to the watershed,” according to a statement by RCAP.

In the early 2000s the problem was discovered by the Ohio EPA, which led to a more in-depth investigation. In 2010 the Ohio EPA and Ohio attorney general ordered the three communities to devise a plan to eliminate the unpermitted discharge of raw and partially treated sewage.

After years with no progress, RCAP stepped in to assist the unsewered communities with planning and funding in 2018. By the end of 2020, a plan was finalized and RCAP began collaborating with Monroe County Engineer Chris Hunt. The construction of the Duffy plant lasted from April 6, 2023, until Dec. 6, 2024, and cost $4,660,090.

The project was funded by multiple entities: the Monroe County share of the American Rescue Plan Act funded $200,000; the Appalachian Regional Commission funded $250,000; the Ohio Water Development Authority funded $500,000; the Ohio Department of Development Water/Wastewater Infrastructure Grant funded $3,285,690; and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency H2Ohio funded $425,000.

This funding will allow each house in the area to have a 1,500-gallon tank that will collect the raw sewage water daily to be transported to the wastewater treatment plant. Similar to a septic tank, the solids will sink to the bottom and will eventually need to be pumped out by the wastewater treatment plant.