City residents should remind themselves that they are already gaining significant benefits from the city’s investment in its sewers. That reality should help soften the blow when utilities customers start paying the second annual increase in sewer rates July 1.

The city is about two years into the 18-year plan and already has been able to remove 1 billion gallons of contaminated water from the rivers in 2009.

Residents should not be surprised but may have forgotten that the Fort Wayne City Council approved a plan to increase sewer rates 86 percent through 2013 to help pay for the $240 million federally mandated plan to reduce by 90 percent the amount of raw sewage flowing into Fort Wayne rivers. Rates will increase 15 percent this year.

City Utilities leaders are expected to give City Council members a progress report on the sewer work Tuesday, including information on the latest rate increase and upcoming projects.

As part of the plan, the city has already completed a $1 million improvement to the sewage treatment plant’s overflow ponds responsible for keeping untreated sewage from going into the rivers when the treatment plant is over its capacity. Sewage is now shipped back to the treatment plant for processing and then released into the rivers. According to city officials, this one project removed about 8,200 pounds of phosphorus, 249,900 pounds of suspended solids and 34,100 pounds of ammonia from the rivers.

The city will bid more than $40 million in sewer projects in 2010. Some of those projects include separation of rain and sewer systems in neighborhoods. Separation projects, such as those planned for Ewing Street, not only reduce the sewage in the rivers, but they will also help homeowners with sewage backing up into basements.

City Utilities has already separated sewers in Kirkwood Park and Mount Vernon Park. Workers will complete the Northside Neighborhood project this year. These three projects will reduce the sewage going into the rivers by at least 60 million gallons each year.

The city is also required to improve its regular sewer system, eliminate failing septic systems and involve residents in the efforts to improve river water quality. A $2.2 million project in the Westlawn subdivision will remove 186 homes from failing septic systems and the city’s rain garden initiative will allow the city to meet these requirements.

With luck, most utilities customers understand that the city needs to make the improvements not just because the federal government is forcing the city, but because it is the right thing to do. Allowing billions of gallons of harmful sewage to flow into the rivers is not good for the environment or the economy.