SHARON DEP requires new plan for sewer system users

SHARON, Pa. -- The city is going to have to beef up its requirements for industrial companies to pretreat wastewater they send into the municipal sanitary sewer system.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has issued what it said is a "final" wastewater discharge permit to the city.
Neither city officials nor their consulting engineer, Gannett Fleming of Pittsburgh, has seen the final document and they aren't sure what requirements it might contain.
However, Dan Goncz, senior project manager for Gannett Fleming, said it is likely the city will be required to implement a more stringent pretreatment program than it has now.
There are a number of industries that send wastewater to Sharon's sewage treatment plant and they are required to pretreat that material before it enters the sewer system to avoid problems at the plant.
The permit issued last week by the DEP requires Sharon to develop and implement a new pretreatment program to address wastewater coming from industrial users. That plan must be submitted to the federal Environmental Protection Agency within a year.
The first step in the process is to determine if specific businesses are having a significant impact on the treatment plant.
Sharon recently announced plans for a $20 million expansion of the treatment plant to expand its capacity, but Goncz said the pretreatment permit is a separate issue unrelated to plant capacity.