DEP says yes to 150 sewer taps
The state has authorized the Greater Uniontown Joint Sewage Plant Authority to issue 150 equivalent dwelling unit (EDU) sewer taps this year, authority officials said.
The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has been deciding how many taps the authority may issue for the last two years since organically overloaded sewage was found entering the authority’s treatment plant in July 2009.
A moratorium on issuing taps has been in place last year and this year requiring the authority to get permission from the DEP to issue taps.
The DEP allowed the authority to issue 150 taps last year and the same number this year to Uniontown, North Union Township and South Union Township, the three municipalities that are served by the plant and fund its operations.
“We requested 357 and gave us 150, and that’s exactly what they did last year,” said James Sampson, one of Uniontown’s representative’s on the authority’s board of directors. “They keep you honest.”
Authority solicitor Ernest P. DeHaas III said South Union Township will receive 84 taps, North Union Township will receive 58 and Uniontown will receive eight.
If the municipalities need more taps, they can request them through the authority and the DEP agreed to consider those requests, DeHaas said.
From the 150 taps available in 2010, about 90 were actually issued, he said.
“Based on the number actually issued last year, I think the joint authority was at least satisfied that the DEP authorized at least 150,” DeHaas said.
Authority officials and representatives from each of the municipalities met with DEP officials in January to find out if the restriction on issuing taps would remain in effect this year and, if so, how many taps the authority could issue.
A corrective action plan to address the organic overloading was another topic.
The DEP agreed to allow the authority to look for the source of the organic material that exceeds what the plant is designed to treat this year.
The organically overloaded material does not enter the plant constantly. Authority officials have said it enters the plant several times a month causing spikes in test results.
Authority officials have said the effluent, or treated water the plant discharges meets the standards in the discharge permit.
DeHaas said the authority has hired a laboratory to take samples from sewer lines in the townships and city and test them to pinpoint the source or sources of the organic discharge.
“That work has already begun. The same lab doing testing at the plant will test samples taken out in the collection system. We get monthly reports from the lab. We will study those results and we have to submit periodic reports to the DEP,” DeHaas said.
The authority and DEP will meet again at the end of this year or early next year to review the findings, he said.
If the source can’t be determined, authority officials have said the DEP could require the authority to expand the plant’s treatment capacity.