Residents, officials fret over flooding
BROWNSVILLE – Several Hiller residents and two Luzerne Township supervisors attended Tuesday’s Brownsville Municipal Authority meeting with ongoing concerns about sewer lines that back up during rainstorms. The municipal authority is working with the township code enforcement officer to make sure downspouts aren’t tapped into the sewer system in Hiller, but township Supervisor Ron DeSalvo said that isn’t going to solve the problem.
“It’s not going to stop flash flooding,” DeSalvo said. “The line from Dairy Delight down isn’t big enough.”
Fred Provance, chairman of the authority, said the size of the line isn’t really the issue, since it handles routine sewage. Provance said something must be done to keep the storm water from infiltrating the sewer lines, and the first step is to make sure residents aren’t putting their downspouts into the sewers.
“They’re going to go block by block. These people should be written up and if they connect them again, they should be fined,” Provance said.
DeSalvo said the problem could go beyond downspouts in the sewers.
“This isn’t a new system. It’s an old system. There could be areas where the water is going directly in,” DeSalvo said.
DeSalvo suggested getting permission from the state Department of Environmental Protection for an overflow pipe in the Hiller area. The authority’s engineer, Rusty Mechling, said it is highly unlikely the DEP would approve an overflow since the Hiller system is not a combined sanitary and storm sewer system.
“It’s illegal. It’s a pollutant. You’d be putting out straight sewage. The only reason they allow a bypass in a combined system is because by the time it gets to that point, it’s very diluted,” Mechling said.
He said that putting in a larger main line in Hiller could have the same effect, since the waste would be carried down into Brownsville’s combined system before overflowing, if the main line were large enough to handle all the infiltrating water.
“DEP would prefer that you get the groundwater out,” Mechling said.
Resident Dennis Pazzabon said his concerns go beyond the property damage he sustained in last month’s flooding.
“Nobody’s told me what my family’s been exposed to with this raw sewage,” Pazzabon said.
“If you’re talking about a health problem that results from the backup of the sewer system, that’s a public health issue, not the responsibility of this authority,” said Ernest DeHaas, the solicitor for the authority.
Sam Zupich said his property floods regularly, not just during exceptional storms with flash flood warnings. James Knisley, the plant superintendent, suggested that he install a check valve to prevent sewer water from getting into his basement. Knisley said that if the serve pipe in his yard is a plastic pipe and not an old terra cotta pipe, there should be no problems with a check valve.