The City of Chattanooga (City) and its surrounding region is one of the fastest growing areas in the U.S. The scenic beauty, low cost of living and abundance of outdoor recreational activities make Chattanooga a highly desirable place to call home. With all that said, we at Jacobs want this community to thrive now and into the future. To assure that we as a community can grow in a smart way and stay in compliance with the EPA-mandated Consent Decree (CD), we continue to focus on implementing the Clear Chattanooga Program. It all began in 2013, when the EPA entered a CD with the City for violations to their NPDES permit, specifically the Westbank sanitary sewer overflow (SSO). The City is now 11 years into the 17-year Clear Chattanooga Program. Jacobs proudly serves as the program manager to develop, implement, and resolve these issues to not only achieve compliance but also position the City for future growth. The program goals are to reduce inflow and infiltration and eliminate SSO in the system. The 1,263-mile sewer system services approximately 400,000 people across 5 counties in 2 states and flows through 79 pump stations to a 230 MGD regional wastewater treatment plant. Phase 1 of the CD ($286M) was completed in July 2020 and included mandated SSES and pipeline rehab projects, development of a CMOM program and hydraulic model, and reliability upgrades to pump stations, CSO and the Plant. A 30MG wet weather storage was constructed to target the Westbank SSO. Phase 2 ($534M) will continue until 2030 and includes further SSES and rehab, capacity upgrades and wet weather storages, with the introduction of Smart Sewers to maximize and optimize facilities such as the recent automation of CSO. This presentation will highlight initiatives to exceed EPA compliance and, at the same time, navigate the current economic climate: • Simulating affordability scenario with our Financial Model to manage cost escalation, market forces, and workforce overload. • Leveraging innovative funding - In November of 2022 the City closed on a $186M Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) loan for multiple projects at the Environmental Campus including 1) MBEC biosolids improvements, 2) wet weather treatment resiliency, and 3) aeration upgrades, moving away from pure Oxygen. • City Wastewater Department’s Progressive Design Build Program: the Environmental and Economic and Infrastructure Improvements (e2i2) Program and the upcoming MBEC Class A POWER Project, mentioned in the WIFIA bullet above. • Implementation of Smart Sewers to optimize the automation of the CSO treatment facilities, reduce SSO, and optimize the City’s disinfection of their CSOs. • Implementation of Consent Decree required Infiltration and Inflow reduction efforts including CIPP of collection system worst offenders, the “leakiest” sewer basins. • Program tools such as web and cloud-based data, electronic document approvals, CMOM mobile apps, Clear Chattanooga Program website and public outreach programs.