DUBOIS – Sandy Township Manager Dave Monella will ask the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) if the township can build its own wastewater treatment facility.
“It was real disheartening to see that article making it to seem that all of the infiltration is coming from us,” said Supervisor Dave Sylvis in response to comments at last week’s DuBois City Council meeting.
DuBois City officials had asked Sandy Township officials to inspect their sewer systems for inflow and infiltration from rain storms. The main reason is that the DEP is coming down on DuBois City for excess inflow and infiltration, and Sandy Township is a customer of their sewage system.
Sylvis’ comment came after Township Manager Perry Bowser said that the township had already spent $5.5 million in replacing old clay pipes. Because of that, any inflow and infiltration from the township should be in the lateral pipes, he said.
Sylvis added that in the meantime, DuBois City had only been doing patchwork repairs. He also cited rate hikes as his reason to have Monella see if Sandy Township will qualify for a sewage treatment plant this time.
“We need to do something to help control those expenses on our own,” said Sylvis. According to the supervisors, previous requests had been turned down.
“When we approached them last time we were told that we had one in the back yard,” said Sylvis.
Also, the supervisors agreed to fulfil the funding request from DuFast. The supervisors’ decision had been tabled for two, previous meetings pending research.