Board hears concerns about sewage in Poland

Neither OEPA nor the county health board has a legal basis to order sewers.
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
AUSTINTOWN -- Joseph Chuk, part owner of a 30-acre undeveloped parcel facing U.S. Route 224 near Clingan Road in Poland Township, is concerned that failing septic systems and flooding will lead to raw sewage on his property if roadside ditches along Route 224 overflow.
"What is the fix?" said Chuk, of Canfield, at a Mahoning County District Board of Health meeting here Thursday.
Chuk said there have been septic-system problems in the area for years, and they continue today.
Chuk is concerned that an Ohio Department of Transportation project to improve Route 224 from near Riverside Drive east to the Pennsylvania line will exacerbate the problem.
ODOT is expected to put the project, which will take part of Chuk's parcel, out for bids in March. ODOT has said it will address flooding problems through drainage improvements.
Chuk asked what the county health board and/or the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency could or would do to guarantee he won't have sewage on his property.
He said sanitary sewer line installations are the best solution.
Board members agreed with that assessment, but added public money is not available for such a project.
Alternatives
A sanitary sewer line runs along nearby Clingan Road, but is at capacity and cannot be tapped into, the board said. The alternatives are putting in another line along Clingan or a line along Struthers Road to the Struthers waste treatment plant, both of which would be very expensive, officials said.
An OEPA representative said his agency tested the area in 2003 and found no general area-wide nuisance that would trigger the agency to order that sewer lines be installed.
The OEPA, however, did find sewage in ditches, and said two homes on James Street and Luteran Lane in Poland Township appeared to be the sources of contamination. The agency asked the health board to investigate.
Wesley J. Vins, director of the county health department's sewage programs, said the two septic systems for those homes were repaired, and when tested in 2005, they were found to be in compliance.
The only thing the health department can do is address individual problems as they occur, said board president Donald Somers. "We don't have the mechanism to mandate sewers," he said.
alcorn@vindy.com