Aug 10, 2015 3 min read

WAYNESBURG – Waynesburg Borough has been given additional time by the state Department of Environmental Protection to develop a plan to address sewage overflows at the borough’s sewage treatment plant.

DEP representatives met with borough officials last week to discuss the borough’s plan to develop a project to reduce the overflows, Bob Dengler of Gannett Fleming engineers, told council Monday.

The borough was required to submit to DEP a new “long-term control plan” for the project by December. That deadline, however, has been extended to February 2017, Dengler said.

The department also asked the borough to conduct additional flow monitoring of the system and to televise the sewer lines to better determine their condition, he said.

The meeting was “very productive,” Dengler said. However, DEP indicated this is the borough’s “last chance to get into compliance” and it must have a plan approved by February 2017.

Councilman Mike Fisher, who also attended the meeting, said DEP officials were helpful and had a good historic perspective of the borough’s situation that many members of council lack.

The DEP officials emphasized, however, the borough “has to get it right this time, there would be no do-over” and failing to meet the new deadline could result in fines, Fischer said.

The borough has been discussed the DEP mandate on and off for numerous years. Only in the last few years, with the deadline approaching, has council increased its focus on the issue.

In September, however, council terminated the services of the engineering firm it had employed for a number of years to design the project, Fayette Engineering, and brought on Gannett Fleming to continue with a plan.

The project must reduce overflows at the borough treatment plant that occur at times of heavy rain and partly result from the fact that when the system was built, stormwater and sanitary sewers were combined.

The plan being developed by Gannett Fleming calls for separating the sanitary sewer and storm sewer in area where it is feasible and reducing the amount of groundwater infiltration entering the system through faulty sewer lines, Dengler said.

The engineering firm is also developing a plan to rehabilitate the borough treatment plant.

In other business, council voted to purchase computers for three borough police cars at a cost of $41,000. The cars currently are not equipped with computers.

Police Chief Rob Toth told council he is seeking contributions from the community to help lessen the cost.to the borough. Council agreed to purchase the equipment with money from parking fines and to use any donations to offset the borough’s cost.

Toth also reported he had talked to the state Department of Transportation about creating a cross walk on High Street at Church Street where traffic would have to stop for pedestrians.

PennDOT is now investigating the matter, he said.

Borough solicitor Pat Fitch reported he completed an ordinance that will allow a borough police officer to be deployed at Margaret Bell Miller Middle School.

The officer’s salary and benefits will be covered by Central Greene School District during the nine months school year, he said.