Mahoning sets goals on sewer projects
A major unseen investment is being made underground.
YOUNGSTOWN — From one end of Mahoning County to the other, the county sanitary engineer’s office has an ambitious schedule of projects planned.
“It’s quite an aggressive schedule that we’ve put together in our department,” said Joseph V. Warino, sanitary engineer.
The projects target water supply and sanitary-sewer extensions and improvements.
“As these projects represent, we’re in many of the townships and the villages, and we spread our resources over all the communities as we’re able to,” added Bill Coleman, sanitary engineering office manager.
“But, being that it’s underground, once it’s constructed and it’s out of sight, people may not realize how much as far as an investment is being made,” Coleman said.
The county sanitary engineer’s office has more than 850 miles of sewer lines, more than 80 pumping stations and seven sewage treatment plants serving more than 40,000 customers.
The planned projects have two broad purposes: improvement of public health and promotion of economic development.
Aging septic systems malfunction, thereby causing pollution, said Matthew Stefanak, health commissioner of the county health department. It works closely with the sanitary engineer’s office on public water-supply and sanitary- sewer-extension projects.
“When an area reaches a certain residential density, then that area is ultimately going to be a candidate for a sanitary sewer,” Stefanak said.
“Projects that provide sanitary sewer and waterlines to rural underserved communities are a real priority for us at the health district,” Stefanak said. “We know that there are extensive pollution problems in those areas we documented with the studies we’ve done.
“So, providing sewer to East Alliance, to Petersburg, to the remainder of Milton Township around Lake Milton that’s not sewered, certain neighborhoods in Austintown that are also underserved — those are long-standing priorities,” Stefanak added.
The story of Petersburg and East Alliance is the tale of two similar communities at opposite ends of Mahoning County.
Both are economically poor rural communities that had sanitary sewers proposed for them in the early 1980s. In both cases, plans were developed, but shelved, because no money was then available to build the sewers, Warino recalled.
Both communities have a “high density of homes built on very small lots with inadequate on-site treatment from septic systems,” Stefanak said.
In both communities, the county health department declared a public health nuisance because it found high bacterial counts in streams and ditches, Stefanak added.
In Petersburg, a $4.7 million sanitary-sewer installation was completed, and customers began connecting to it earlier this year.
Seventy-four of the 160 homes required to tap into it already have done so. Those who were notified by the county health department this spring have 180 days to tap in.
Because private water wells in Petersburg are contaminated by sewage bacteria and high-iron content, the county commissioners will soon award a contract for a new $1.8 million water supply line, which will be funded in part by federal stimulus money.
In East Alliance, construction begins later this year on the $1.8 million first phase of a sanitary sewer that will be ready for use late next summer, with the sewage flowing to the Alliance city sewage treatment plant.
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency required Alliance to set aside money for this project, and the sanitary engineer’s office agreed to perform this sewer construction project as part of the settlement of the state’s lawsuit over pollution from Mahoning County’s sewage treatment plants.
The project is being funded by Ohio Public Works Commission and federal Community Development Block Grant funds, with Smith Township using its host fees from the Transload America landfill on Oyster Road to provide a $100,000 local share for the federal funds.
The East Alliance sewer project will greatly benefit the community and may stimulate future economic development, Stefanak said.
Several other projects have economic development as a goal:
U The $350,000 Calla Road Sanitary Sewer Extension going into service early next year to serve two existing homes, three existing businesses and any new development.
U The $825,000 Ellsworth Sanitary Sewer Extension, which went into service this spring to serve restaurants, businesses and a school near the state Route 45 and U.S. Route 224 intersection.
U The $2.7 million Struthers Interceptor Sewer. Construction will start in August, and it’s designed in part to promote economic development along U.S. Route 224 in Poland.
U The $350,000 Bailey Road water supply and sanitary sewer extension on which construction will start in late August or September to accommodate the new Republic Special Metals plant on South Bailey Road in North Jackson.
U The $1.3 million Western Reserve Road waterline extension in Canfield and Beaver townships to be built next year. It is primarily designed to serve the Linde Hydraulics Corp., which proposes an expansion.
“By having water- and sewer lines available, we certainly have something to entice and to offer to prospective developers or builders,” Coleman said.
“We’re doing our part to keep the economy going,’’ Warino added.
milliken@vindy.com
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