CLEARFIELD – Clearfield Borough Council is entering the third and final part of its project to remove stormwater infiltration from its sanitary sewer system.
At Thursday’s meeting, Engineer Todd Banks of Stiffler, McGraw and Associates, told the council that plans are under way for the Nichols Street Outfall project.
Several years ago, the Department of Environmental Protection issued a mandate to the Clearfield Municipal Authority to remove excess stormwater from the sanitary sewer system.
CMA owns the sewage treatment plant while many of the sewer lines are owned by Lawrence Township and also by the borough.
The borough, the township and CMA signed a consent order and agreement saying they will remove the stormwater inflow and infiltration by April 30.
In recent years, the designation of an overflow, located in Hyde, was changed from a combined sewage overflow to a sanitary sewage overflow.
Due to the excess stormwater during periods of heavy rain, CMA is forced to open a sanitary sewage overflow located in Hyde, which allows the excess water and sewage to flow into the West Branch of the Susquehanna River.
Each time CMA must discharge from the sanitary sewage overflow, they receive a fine from DEP. The township has agreed to pay 80 percent of the fines, while CMA pays 20 percent.
Both the township and the borough have undertaken major construction projects to separate the stormwater from the sewage.
Banks said the Nichols Street project will be the final project the borough will need to compete in order to comply with the consent order and agreement.
At the meeting, the council received seven bids for the project and voted to award the contract to Greenland Construction in the amount of $24,774.
The contract is contingent upon review by the engineer and borough operations manager and the ability to complete the project by April 30 deadline.
Banks said the borough may want to consider revisiting homes that had sump pumps to ensure the devices are no longer tied into the sewage system. He said the pumps can put a large amount of excess water into the system if they are still connected.
Also at the meeting, Banks said that the borough is still waiting for the Department of Economic Development to approve the borough’s Community Development Block Grant. The money would be used for the Stinky Run flood control project.
