Communities deal with storm water projects
Late in its meeting last week, North Belle Vernon Councilman Mark Frederick issued a warning to his colleagues — one that came with an unknown price tag.
“Our sewage project is not done,” Frederick said. “We are facing a possible large expense.”
Frederick told his peers last week that he fears another rate hike might be necessary for the borough to fund completion of its project. That work would hopefully connect the storm water system to the Belle Vernon system, thus separating storm water and sewage, Frederick said.
It’s a problem that communities in the area are facing in the best-case scenario without a state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) mandate.
North Belle Vernon is susceptible to flooding during heavy rain storms on the south side of the borough, near the Fayette County Housing Authority high rise.
“Belle Vernon has storm water which goes to that site too, but we can’t deny that we contribute to that,” Frederick said.
“Connecting to the Belle Vernon system would help alleviate that.”
Frederick said the borough is examining traversing its storm water through housing authority property and connecting to deep storm sewers on Belle Vernon property by an old dump site near the high rise. That option is tentative, Frederick said, noting they have yet to discuss it with Belle Vernon officials.
Frederick said the work would be the borough’s responsibility.
“It’s possible people could see a rate hike,” Frederick said. “We won’t know a cost until we get the engineer’s report.”
Carl DeiCas of KLH Engineering is working on that report.
The project could be completed in 2017, Frederick said.
Dealing with
the problem
Communities have two options for dealing with storm water, said Ed Golanka, general manager of the Authority of the Borough of Charleroi.
“Storm water separation is only a single tool in the tool box,” Golanka said. “You have the option of treating the water in a combined system or removing the storm water.”
The Authority of the Borough of Charleroi serves customers in Charleroi, North Charleroi, Fallowfield Township, Speers and Dunlevy.
The authority is eyeing the treatment option, treating all of the communities as one entity.
“We believe it’s the more economical way to go,” Golanka said.
The authority is expected to make a decision this summer on a systemwide project mandated by the state DEP.
That project, which would extend ultimately to 2022, would guarantee the sewerage system captures and treats 85 percent of raw sewage flowing through the system during a wet weather flow.
Authority officials have toured other facilities to devise the best, most cost-effective project and have presented to its member municipalities over the past couple of months.
The new alternative project would eliminate combined sewer overflow systems in Speers and Dunlevy and take all of the overflow to a treatment facility which would be built in Speers. It comes with an anticipated price tag of $30 million to $35 million, half of the initial projection of $66 million.
In 2006, Charleroi completed a project for which residents pay a quarterly fee of $46.50 to repay the bond issue.
Golanka said that project did contribute to reduced flows, but did not eliminate the need for a systemwide project.
Monongahela Councilman Ken Kulak said his city is under a DEP MSR-4 permit. MS-4 is short for municipal separate sewer system.
The DEP permit requires the city to regularly check its flows and clean out drains, Kulak said.
A joint project of the city and the Municipal Authority of Monongahela has completed about 90 percent of the work, Street Department Foreman Mark Gadd said.
“We’ve been separating things all along,” said Gadd.
“We will do a couple more this summer.”
Donora Borough manager Dennis Fisher said the community is also complying with an MS-4 permit
Donora is in the midst of a $2.7 million sanitary sewer separation project. The project is being constructed by Greenland Construction. The company is simultaneously doing a $3.2 million project in Monessen.
The borough is also involved in public education, creating clean spaces, and even building a community garden.
“We’re very busy trying to comply with DEP,” Fisher said.
Overall, Donora will spend $42 million over seven years on the issue, Fischer said.