SEWAGE CONNECTION BAN LIFTED IN AUSTIN
Borough corrects treatment facility deficiencies, gets DEP approval

Pennsylvania's Dept. of Environmental Protection earlier this week notified Austin Borough that it has lifted the sanctions that restricted new connections to the borough sewage treatment facility.

New sewage hook-ups had been prohibited in Austin Borough since 2000 when DEP ordered the borough to create a corrective action plan to address the deficiencies. The borough failed to submit the plan for approval, which resulted in nearly $20,000 in fines from DEP.

In 2003, a new group of council members hired an engineering firm to assist them in writing a plan and correcting the issues at the plant. Later that year, a new plan was submitted and approved by DEP.

After seeing progress, DEP agreed to lower the borough's civil liability to $6,500. Austin Borough paid the fine in Jan. 2004 and has been working with DEP and its engineers, E&M of Bradford, to ensure the proper operation of the community's wastewater treatment facility.

In a letter of notification and congratulations, DEP said that the borough's annual Wasteload Management Report was "complete and accurate" and the borough's efforts to correct the sewage facility's deficiencies "have satisfactorily addressed the overload and operational problems" there.

"Consequently," the letter continued, "the connection prohibition is hereby lifted and Austin Borough may approve new connections."

"Given the exciting things that could potentially take place at the papermill site and at the dam site, this news couldn't have come at a better time," said Borough Council President Jesse Valenti. "I tip my hat to Herm, E&M (engineers) and the councils before me who were able to work through this and get it resolved."

The trouble began in 1997 when the borough failed to submit its Wasteload Management Report. For the following three years, the borough failed to make the report on time.

Then in 2000, DEP discovered that discharge from the borough's treatment facility was in violation of the Pennsylvania Clean Streams Law and that the borough had used "inaccurate calculations in its reporting of the facility's performance."

By the time the borough had implemented corrective measures in late 2003, it had been polluting Freeman run for three years.

At the time, DEP Regional Director Robert Yowell assessed the fine for "sewage treatment plant discharge violations that occurred between January 2000 and May 2003, and for reporting violations from 1997 to 2001."

Some of the discharge violations were for too much fecal coliform bacteria, suspended solids or biochemical oxygen demand in the treated wastewater that was discharged into Freeman Run.

The borough's facility was also hydraulically overloaded, meaning that too much water was making its way into the system due to a poorly maintained water system, illegal storm drains and half a dozen other factors.

Austin Borough's sewage treatment plant operator Herm Beyer has worked with E&M engineers to correct those issues and also the deficiencies at the facility itself.