Jun 20, 2002 3 min read

If you’re one of the hundreds of homeowners during this recent spat of rainy weather who stood in your basement attempting to push water back down the drain, you’ve probably fumed that somebody ought to do something about this disgusting occurrence. Perhaps after you disinfected yourself and your home you charged off to a municipal meeting to demand your borough, township or sewage authority fix it and now.

If so, you might have listened to a message similar to one the folks in Brownsville heard the other night. The problem is that too much groundwater is getting into the sanitary sewerage system. When this happens the plant runneth over, wastewater backs up and into basements.

So who is to blame? The answer might surprise you. According to a recent report by the Pennsylvania Economy League through the Campaign for Clean Water, homeowners are responsible for much of the problem. They just don’t know it.

Unlike waterlines, where anyone capable of turning a spigot can figure out if a line is broken, the same cannot be said of lines carrying wastewater. There are no meters to gauge the flow and there isn’t an inexpensive way of checking to see if lines are cracked and ground water is seeping in.

All of this adds to the burden of sewage treatment plants. When plants are forced to treat storm water, the capacity to treat wastewater is lessened. This occurs frequently and leads to stunted development as the state Department of Environmental Protection refuses to grant additional permits.

Of course, homeowners aren’t to blame for all the problems. Some communities have combined storm and sanitary systems left over from days gone by that have yet to be separated.

In the past some local municipalities have attempted to keep up with the flow by expanding or building new plants, which is one way but not necessarily the best way to correct the problems.

And Fayette is not alone. The 11 counties that make up Southwestern Pennsylvania are in the same pickle, more so than any other region of the state.

That is one of the reasons the Campaign for Clean Water is bringing community leaders from each of the counties together to work on a regional approach. (Another reason recognizes that the counties share common watersheds and must work together in cleaning the bacteria and harmful pollutants that are found in the rivers and streams from sewerage overflows and septic tank seepage.)

The regional approach makes sense in that projects can be identified, prioritized and attacked with federal and state funds obtained through a united lobbying front. And it makes sense financially in that joint ventures bring an economy of scale through savings of manpower and machinery.

During the next several months, you will probably be reading more about this as the county commissioners will be asked to look at joining in and taking a broader and more active role in solving this problem.

The commissioners in undertaking a multi-million-dollar bond issue intended for some to go toward public sewerage projects.

Homeowners also need to start thinking about wastewater other than when it spills into the basement and demands attention.

A region-wide public campaign is planned to suggest broken sewer lines be repaired to correct the problem.