"Sewage" Interceptor—Delmont Borough council's Disregard and Contempt for the Environment, for the Borough's Law Abiding Residents, for Sewer Rate Payers, and for Municipal Water Consumers

Delmont Borough knowingly discharges untreated human waste into a primary source of this community's municipal water. This active contempt for public health and safety and for fish and wildlife habitats and natural ecosystems has been a hallmark of Delmont Borough for 20+ years.

Delmont Borough council has indicated through its April 10 statement that the Borough is pursuing construction of a Sewage Interceptor. The purpose of a sewage interceptor is to hold excess sewage back on a temporary basis so it can gradually and safely be directed into the system for transport to the treatment facility.

Delmont Borough has no excess sewage.

During times of dry weather, the sewage system contains and conducts its sewage generally without issue for treatment to FTMSA in Murrysville. In fact, during times of dry weather, the Borough has excess capacity in the system. FTMSA allows for 259,000 gallons per day (gpd) to be pumped from the Cramer Pump Station for treatment. In dry weather conditions, on average the Borough pumps just under 140,000 gpd [stats per FTMSA authority personnel].

What the Borough has is excess storm water entering and swamping its sanitary sewer system through illegal connections and other infiltration in the Borough.

This costly proposed project is perhaps more accurately termed a Storm Water Interceptor.

Rather than first seeking to mitigate storm water inflows from illegal connections and other points of infiltration within the Borough, Delmont Borough council seeks to incur significant engineering and legal fees and construction costs on the backs of its law abiding residents and sewer rate payers.

The Borough’s engineering and legal consultants are among a select few with seats at the table in “negotiations” with the PA DEP (we, the affected property owners, do not have a seat at that table). Who but engineers Kevin Brett and Gary Baird of Lennon Smith Souleret have developed the plans and proposals the Borough has put forth to the DEP? Who but Borough solicitor Daniel J. Hewitt is suggesting the legal means by which the Borough will pursue construction of the “Sewage” Interceptor?

Self serving?

Are Delmont Borough council members acting as good stewards of our natural resources in mixing storm water with its sewage?

Water is a precious commodity and conservation of this natural resource is of vital importance. Storm water management infrastructure within the Borough and education of Borough residents about water conservation is "best use" of the public funds Borough council seems determined to appropriate.

Does it make any good economic sense to mix the Borough's storm water with its sewage and then to send this cocktail off to FTMSA in Murrysville for treatment?

How have the violent hydraulic forces within the gravity feed line, created by the Borough's excessive storm water inflows from illegal connections to the system, contributed to the deterioration of that line and the anticipated expense to correct its deficiencies?

What percentage of FTMSA's expenditures for Systems Monitoring and Reporting, Chemicals, Supplies, Repairs and Maintenance, Depreciation of Treatment System and Plant Fixed Assets can be associated with rendering sewage treatment to rain water?

We ask Delmont Borough council members:
Why do you refuse to mandate Borough-wide corrective action with regard to illegal connections to the sewer system? Through what prism of justice or fairness have you determined that law abiding residents should subsidize the costly affects of their neighbors' illegal connections? Whose wallets are you protecting? Whose wallets do you seek to enrich? 

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