Authority awaits ruling on taps
The Greater Uniontown Joint Sewage Plant Authority will have to wait a bit longer to find out how many taps it can issue this year and will keep looking for the elusive source of organic material that could force the authority to expand the treatment plant. That was the news more than a dozen representatives of the authority and Uniontown, North Union Township and South Union Township, which are served by the plant, received during a meeting with the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) on Wednesday.
In July 2009, the DEP imposed a moratorium prohibiting the authority from issuing taps because laboratory test results showed the plant was organically overloaded.
In August 2009, the DEP approved the authority’s corrective action plan that required the authority to study to organic load problem and come with a solution.
The authority had other labs test samples and those results showed the plant was not organically overloaded, but the organic load of sewage entering the plant at various times exceeded the amount the plant was designed and permitted to treat.
The treated water, or effluent, the plant discharges into Redstone Creek meets the standards set in the authority’s discharge permit.
Authority solicitor Ernest P. DeHaas III said DEP officials promised during Wednesday’s meeting in Pittsburgh to promptly let the authority know whether it can issue any or all of the taps for the 357 equivalent dwelling units (EDUs) that the townships and the city requested this year.
“We’re looking for that number to be communicated to us in the near future,” DeHaas said.
The DEP also extended the corrective action plan through this year, and the authority will continue testing the organic load at the plant, reporting the results to the DEP and looking for the source of the mysterious, periodic influx of organic material, he said.
If this year’s tests show the plant is overloaded, the DEP would require the authority to expand the plant to accommodate the higher organic load, DeHaas said.
He said sewage containing the high organic load enters the plant several times each month from an unknown source, causing “spikes” in test results. The authority’s investigation has not been able to track the source of the organic material, he added.
If the source is found and eliminated, DeHaas said he believes the DEP will terminate the corrective action plan, drop the tap moratorium and not require the authority to expand the plant.
DeHaas and James Sampson, one of Uniontown’s representatives on the joint authority board of directors, said the DEP officials said the tests indicate the organic material occasionally entering the plant is typically produced by breweries or beverage factories, but those types of businesses are not located in the plant’s service area.
“That’s why it’s a mystery,” DeHaas said. “We don’t have those kinds of businesses here.”
“They mentioned beverage factories and breweries that could create those problems, but we don’t have those things around here,” Sampson said. “Where is it coming from? We’ve got a problem somewhere. We’ve got to find it.”
He said the amount of overloaded material entering the plant has been reduced since it was first detected.
“We’ve taken a lot out. We’ve reduced the numbers. It has decreased. It’s not the numbers they (DEP) want to see. We get four or five spikes a month. We can’t find where it’s coming from,” Sampson said. “With help from the municipalities, we’ll find it.”
Infiltration into sewer lines and the illegal dumping of material into the sewer system also were identified at Wednesday’s meeting as possible sources, Sampson said.
He said the authority will have to ask the townships and city to look at lines in their municipalities to locate the source.
The authority operates the plant, but the municipalities are responsible for the sewer lines, he said.
Sampson said if the source of the organic material isn’t found and eliminated, “it’s pretty much inevitable we’ll have to expand.”