STORM DRAIN PROBLEMS FOUND
'Tons' of sand in Emporium storm drains

When Emporium's downtown streets started flooding during periods of intense rainfall back in 2003, no one knew why.

The problem seemed to crop up overnight; as if something sudden and drastic had happened to the town stormwater drain system.

That underground system, a series of 24-inch pipes that funnel stormwater runoff to the nearby creek, failed many times in the summers of 2003 and 2004 -- so much that water flooded Fourth Street and found its way into the front doors of some downtown businesses and into the basements of many commercial and residential buildings.

Emporium Borough Council, which began troubleshooting and flushing the parts of the system it could access that summer, is just now learning the extent of the storm drain blockage and what is causing most of it.

Council members earlier this summer hired Pipe Eye, a Bradford company that can "see" inside underground pipes by using a snake-like camera to burrow through them, to troubleshoot and correct the borough drainage problems.

This week that company has been working near Chestnut Street, where the storm drains back up quickly during times of heavy rainfall.

Pipe Eye's Dave Burt (left) explains Emporium's storm drain issues to Borough Manager Don Reed. One of three piles of debris that has been siphoned from the drains is above.

And they found the culprit: sand.

"Over the years, all that sand that is used in the winter just keeps building up in the storm drains," said Pipe Eye's Dave Burt. "Eventually, it will completely close off these 24- inch pipes."

Tons of sand have been vacuumed out of the storm drains surrounding Fourth Street. The pile of debris has been hauled to the borough's maintenance facility on Second Street.

Most of the sand, Burt believes, is coming from Fourth Street, a road maintained by PennDOT, using sand as anti-skid in the winter.

Burt, whose company has provided similar services to many other area municipalities, said sections of the drain pipes in Emporium were 90 percent blocked in some areas.

Pipe Eye's services have been costing the borough upwards of $1,000 per day.