Engineer defends sewer authority leader’s claim
Chairman Nale has received criticism for saying under-home work is necessary
Criticism and outrage have often been the response to claims by Hollidaysburg Sewer Authority Chairman Regis Nale that under-home work is necessary to eliminate sewer-flow problems.
However, an engineer overseeing a project in one Cambria County community has offered support for Nale’s position.
“Right now, we are not requiring the pressure testing across the township,” said Zach Teeter, an EADS engineer working in Lower Yoder Township. “It’s going to be required here soon.”
Hollidaysburg and Lower Yoder are two among many municipalities that must take steps to reduce inflow and infiltration — ground- and stormwater seepage — into sanitary sewer lines. The mandates issued by the state Department of Environmental Protection came in the form of consent orders and agreements or corrective action plans. DEP spokeswoman Lauren Fraley recently shared information about those agreements.
“A consent order and agreement is a negotiated legal document that establishes a course of action in accordance with a schedule, and provides for penalties if that action is not completed or not completed on time,” she wrote in an email.
Corrective action plans, Fraley said, are similar agreements self-implemented by municipalities.
System repairs are intended to discourage sanitary sewer overflows — the discharges of raw sewage into local streams because of too much water inside sewer pipes.
Overflow violates the state’s Clean Streams Law, as well as federal regulations, Fraley said.
In Blair and Cambria counties, 24 municipalities are currently working toward sewer repairs through either a corrective action plan or consent order and agreement. In Blair County, corrective action plans are in place for Hollidaysburg and Tyrone boroughs, Fraley said.
In areas where sewer overflows are common, community leaders have two correction options, Fraley said, explaining DEP does not tell municipal leaders which option they have to choose.
“Municipalities can either (1) expand the treatment capacity of the sewage treatment plant to accommodate the excess flows or (2) reduce sewage flows from customers by repairing and/or replacing public sewer lines and private sewer laterals,” she wrote.
Both Hollidaysburg and Lower Yoder officials chose the latter.
In Hollidaysburg, a multimillion-dollar project — described as “partially mandated” by DEP — is underway in two sections of the borough, where studies have identified that inflow and infiltration are problematic.
It includes the replacement of main public sewer pipes and also requires residents to replace their private laterals — pipes beneath homes and within property lines — if they fail a borough-mandated pressure test.
Homeowners contend lateral replacement could cost upward of $10,000 and require them to tear up basement floors to get to under-home pipes.
Still, Nale has long said private work is the only way to truly eliminate the problem, as much ground- and stormwater infiltration enters the system through laterals.
In other communities, leaders have chosen to forgo private work, and Hollidaysburg residents have cited those municipalities as proof that Nale and other sewer officials are lying about the necessity of under-home work.
This month, Nale got some support, including from Fraley.
“Replacing public lines is inadequate to remove all excess I/I because as much as 50 to 60 percent of all the sewer lines in a given municipality are privately owned,” Fraley wrote in her email. “Accordingly, fixing half of the problem would not be very effective and a waste of money.”
In Lower Yoder, only public lines now are being replaced, Teeter said, explaining the township also is footing the bill to install laterals to within 5 feet of homeowners’ foundations.
That public work may not be enough to reduce flows to acceptable levels, and if flow monitoring does not show desired improvements, private work soon could be mandated in Lower Yoder, too, Teeter said, explaining he thinks that will be a likely outcome.
“When you do that, you are not fixing the problem,” he said.
Mirror Staff Writer Sean Sauro is at 946-7535.