McDonald's sewage plant aims to start

Damage to the plant is more than $120,000.
By SHERRI L. SHAULIS
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
McDONALD -- Officials plan to have a temporary generator set up by Friday to get the sewage treatment plant running again.
Village Administrator Robert O'Connell said floodwaters as high as 10 feet covered the plant Sunday night, rendering it inoperable. The damage to the plant is estimated at $120,000.
"We want to get a generator in there so we can at least work the system manually," he said.
For now, though, the village's untreated sewage is emptying directly into the Mahoning River.
O'Connell said he's notified the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, but added there's little anyone can do.
"We did everything by the book," he said. "Everybody knows what's happening. The biggest thing for [the OEPA] is that we were the one notifying them, and not a neighboring community."
The village had a similar problem earlier this month, when a blockage in the sanitary sewer lines near New Jersey Avenue caused an overflow into the storm sewer system.
Gray water coated rocks and grass before flowing into the river.
Fast dilution
OEPA officials said that because of heavy rains this month, the Mahoning River is flowing higher and faster than normal.
The high flow rate means the untreated sewage is diluting quickly and flowing fast enough downstream that it doesn't have time to settle and contaminate the area.
Workers, meanwhile, have begun picking up debris from last weekend's floods.
"It should help lift the morale of people if they don't have to look at it anymore," O'Connell said.
More than 300 village homes were damaged by water, he said, and the basement walls of two of them caved in.
The wooden floor in the high school gymnasium was a total loss. School officials estimate the damage at more than $100,000.