ZIONSVILLE, IN — The Zionsville Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP), nestled near Starkey Park and the Rail Trail, is currently operating at a capacity it was never designed to handle. This crisis is leading to environmental contamination risks, severe odor problems, and significant public safety hazards. Critics are calling for immediate intervention, demanding the town halt a costly $21.5 million expansion and instead pursue the regional solution its own planning documents have long recommended.A Crisis Built on Ignored PlanningThe Zionsville WWTP was built in 1956 for a small community of under 2,000 residents. Though repeatedly modified, it is fundamentally ill-equipped to serve a current population now exceeding 30,600. The current crisis, critics charge, stems from officials taking short-cuts and consistently ignoring their own planning studies for years.
19 Years of Warnings: The 2003 Zionsville Comprehensive Plan and the 2011 Sanitary Sewer Master Plan both clearly indicated that the plant’s 2.0 MGD capacity would be exceeded by 2020 and that a second WWTP would be necessary as development continued.
The Ignored Deadline: The 2011 plan explicitly stated that the current plant could not be improved to serve the projected 21,000 population figure—a threshold the town is now significantly past. The plan’s conclusion: a new facility had to be constructed, or a partnership formed. All trouble began in 2019, precisely when the system became critically strained…