Regional panel looks into flooding

A county commissioner says the region needs to organize to get sewage and flooding project funding.

By JEANNE STARMACK

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

NEW CASTLE, Pa. — A regional commission is trying to decide how to attack the problems of sewage overflow into waterways, water quality, and flooding in southwestern Pennsylvania.

The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, which includes representatives from 10 counties, met at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Fayette County last week, said Lawrence County Commissioner Steve Craig, who attended the retreat for Lawrence.

“We have the highest level of combined sewage overflows of any region in the country,” Craig said at the commissioners’ meeting Tuesday. “It gets into rivers and streams.”

Craig said the Little Beaver Creek near Enon Valley is one example of a trouble spot in Lawrence County for flooding.

And in New Castle, water infiltrates sewer pipes and the mixture overwhelms the city’s sewage treatment plant, he said.

When that happens, the mixture bypasses some of the plant’s treatment process, said Freda Tarbell of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. The plant releases the partly treated sewage into the Mahoning River, she said. The situation caused the state Department of Environmental Protection to put a hold on new sewer permits in areas the sanitation plant serves. That moratorium was issued late last year.

New Castle resident John Altman told the commissioners they should consider earmarking money from a new racetrack and casino complex being planned in Mahoning Township to fix the city’s antiquated sewer system.

“It has stopped development cold,” Altman said, adding that after a big storm, “you can smell raw sewage in catch basins.”

Craig said the Southwest Pennsylvania Commission is going to decide what to do about forming an organization that would lobby for state and federal funding for the 600 municipalities in the 10 counties it serves.

He said right now a lack of organization is hurting the region, which is in the Ohio River Basin.

“The state has a lot of funding to clean up water that goes to the Chesapeake [Bay] and also the Lake Erie Basin,” he said. “We aren’t asking with one voice to attract funding.”