raw sewage in swatara creek

[brain]

i don't think the news has mentioned, or will, but derry township's(hershey area) public works had been wiped out last week..think they pulled the plug thursday evening. the plant is completely down...as in not doing a thing with the in coming material...other than showing it to the door. well filtering larger items out, but that is it.....no treating. every single pump and electric motor has been damaged in one way or other. all major buildings had upwards of 15 feet of water above the ground level areas......most pumps are in below grade areas.
there is no time frame of when anything will be back on line...as of today pumps and motors where still being removed, nothing has been reinstalled. most satalite pump stations are off line as well....one has been destoryed.
not mentioning how i know this, other than i'm a millwright.

 

[Swattie87]

So you're saying I shouldn't wet wade for a while? 😛

 

[jdaddy]

Frankly there are/were a lot of other systems in the exact same shape in the central PA area. I am handling a claim for one of them.

 

[CPR]

The Derry Township treatment center has a massive reserve tank designed for such emergencies. They are not currently pumping raw sewage into the creek. Although, that may change if the millwrights don't get all those pumps back on line soon.

 

[brain]

sure, lets go with that.

 

[Maurice]

I know the scale is out of wac but in my neighborhood all our sewage drains down to a pumping station at the bottom of the hill.....about 1000 homes. (guess) Then its off to the STP. When the ground became saturated the pumps couldn't handle all the infiltration of ground water so the township called in Septic trucks. They pumped and removed sewage from the pump station round the clock for four days until the flows became tenable.


Thats how our Public works director handled it.

 

[CPR]

I suspect that the news has not covered it much because it's really a non-issue, or at least a non-addressable issue. It's no secret the entire facility was under water, literally. Everything that was in the treatment tanks washed away. Everything currently being pumped the facility is being stored until they can begin to treat it.
I attended the Township meeting last night and the sewer manager and township engineer addressed the issue with stark frankness. There doesn't seem to be any reason to cover anything up. It is what it is, there is nothing anyone can do about and as Jdaddy stated there are numerous other treatment plants in the exact same situation.

 

[brain]

They handle 5million gallons a day, on a normal flow...currently its around 7million gallons daily. They have 2million gallon worth of storage.....which is currently full of creek at the moment. Do the math. And don't believe Everething your told.

 

[brain]

There is no cover up, because it what it is. They only started adding chlorine....In huge amounts, Wednesday.
The bottom line is my home waters are taking a severe beating.

 

[Swattie87]

I feel for the creek too, Brian. It will rebound though. It lived through the pollution of decades ago, and it will live through this. Doesn't take the sting away now I know, but the creek and its fish will be fine. Fortunately its headwaters have been cleaned up and it's relatively clean throughout its length now really. The Quittie is still a bit of an issue, but even that's improving.

 

[MattBoyer]

Swattie87 wrote:
Fortunately its headwaters have been cleaned up and it's relatively clean throughout its length now really.

Agreed to some extent, but half my town's in that creek after last week. The smell of oil was astounding and I never remember a flood smelling like that before. It'll be fine, but it's a severe step back after years of getting cleaner.

Boyer