A BRIEF HISTORY OF SHOREWOOD FOREST UTILITIES, INC.

Shorewood Forest Utilities, Inc., a not-for-profit corporation based in Union Township, Porter County, was granted its original Certificate of Territorial Authority (CTA) by the Public Service Commission of Indiana—now known as the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC)—in 1975 (Cause No. 33782). Established by the Shorewood Corporation, the Utility was created to provide sanitary sewage collection and treatment, as well as potable water service, to 137 residential lots, with the potential to serve over 1,000 homes. Currently, Shorewood Forest Utilities serves approximately 1200 customers, including the recently added 200-lot Sagamore subdivision and the 88-lot Arbor Lakes subdivision. The CTA expansion for Sagamore was approved on April 4, 2007, under Cause No. 43145, and the expansion to include Arbor Lakes was approved on November 25, 2008.

The Shorewood Forest Utility system comprises a treatment plant and a collection system serving around 1200 residential customers across the Shorewood Forest, Edgewood, Sagamore, and Arbor Lakes subdivisions, as well as two commercial customers: the Shellbourne Conference Center and the Shorewood Forest Property Owners Association Clubhouse.

SFU’s treatment plant, recently expanded to handle 320,000 gallons per day (GPD), utilizes a Return Activated Sludge (RAS) system with extended aeration. This continuous operation returns sludge containing microbes to the aeration tanks to facilitate the digestion and oxidation of waste. While the plant has a maximum capacity of 320,000 GPD, the average daily flow is approximately 150,000 GPD. The expansion to serve Arbor Lakes is expected to add about 40,800 GPD, leaving ample reserve capacity to accommodate both current and future customers.

The collection system, which is exclusively a sanitary sewer system, is designed to handle limited wet weather flows resulting primarily from infiltration through leaking joints and manholes. It consists of roughly 30 miles of sewer mains, predominantly 6 or 8-inch vitrified clay pipes, with some newer sections made of PVC.

Shorewood Forest Utilities, Inc. has generally operated within its NPDES effluent parameters, with few incidents reported before the summer of 2007. However, in the summer of 2008, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) issued a Notice of Violation (NOV) for exceeding regulated effluent parameters. Subsequently, SFU entered into an Agreed Order requiring the development of a Compliance Plan. In August 2009, IDEM identified additional violations of the NPDES Permit. Following discussions, SFU was required to prepare an Additional Compliance Plan, which has been submitted to IDEM for review.