Lairdsville sewage treatment plant officially opens

Jun 1, 2023

PAT CROSSLEY/Sun-GazetteTownship, county, state and federal entities that all played a part in helping to make the Lairdsville Sewage Treatment facility a reality, either showed up in person or sent representatives to take part in the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the site. Members of the Lycoming Water and Sewer Authority, who played an integral part in the process, organized the event.

LAIRDSVILLE — It was a sunny day with cows grazing in the field on a hill behind the new Lairdsville Sewage Treatment plant as the ribbon was cut at the facility and everything was gearing up to bring the plant online.

Representatives from local, state and national governments were on hand. It had been a cooperative effort that got funding to construct the plant in this small Franklin Township community.

What was noticeably missing from the celebration were members of the community who will be most affected by the plant.

It is their households who will be paying around $110 per month to have the sewage pumped from their homes, a process that was deemed necessary due to failed on-lot systems. And, they will be the ones paying to have laterals put in place to connect to the new sewer lines.

The journey that led to the construction of the Lairdsville plant began in the 1960's.

"In 1966, the Pennsylvania Sewage Facilities Act 537 was enacted to address the existing sewage disposal problems and to prevent future problems," John Bickhart, of Lycoming County Water and Sewer Authority, told the group gathered for the ceremony.

"This is what DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) says about Act 537: ‘To meet these objectives, Act 537 requires proper planning of all types of sewage facilities. Malfunctioning sewage disposal systems, regardless of type, pose a serious threat to the public health and environment. They can pollute public and private drinking water sources, often by discharging directly to groundwater, and they can expose humans and animals to various bacteria, viruses and parasites. Repairs of these systems often can lead to financial hardships for the affected municipalities or the homeowners,’ — definitely true in this case," Bickhart said.

The sewage facility's programs are largely administered by individual municipalities with technical assistance and oversight from DEP.

"All municipalities must develop and implement a comprehensive official sewage facilities plan that addresses the present and future sewage disposal needs. These plans are modified when new land development projects are proposed or whenever a municipality's sewage disposal needs change. DEP reviews the official plans and any subsequent revisions," Bickhart said.

Lairdsville is located in Franklin Township, so, when the Lycoming County Planning Commission prepared a county-wide comprehensive water and sewer plan in 1971, the township supervisors adopted the parts of the plan that pertained to township as their first official plan.

That plan served the township for 35 years, and then, in 2007, the township was notified by DEP to hire a qualified professional to update the plan, Bickhart said.

"Through the same period of time, environmental regulations — federal through EPA, and state through DEP — were becoming more and more stringent. In 1972, the Federal Water Pollution Control Act amendments were adopted. And that really changed everything as any of us that are in this industry know, not just in Pennsylvania, but across the United States," Bickhart said.

"Through the last half of 2007, Mid Penn engineering was retained by the township to conduct the studies needed to prepare the update. One of the first tasks undertaken was to conduct a survey of the existing on-lot disposal systems located throughout the township and to sample some of the private water supply sources," he said.

In a report that he prepared in 2018, Bickhart said he wrote, "The village of Lairdsville is a fairly typical rural community of homes clustered close together with individual water supplies and on-lot sewage disposal systems, both of which would have been constructed prior to the existence of any contemporary standards for water supply, well or on-lot sewage disposal system construction. In this particular case, the soil types within the village of Lairdsville are classified as having a very limited capability for on-lot sewage system operation."

"Based on the survey of approximately 56% of the properties within the proposed statutory source system service area, which is the Village of Lairdsville, 69% were found to have existing on-lot sewage disposal systems that were confirmed or suspected of malfunctioning based on a survey of approximately 42% of the properties within the source service area; 70% were found to have the detectable level of nitrates, toli coliforms or fecal coliforms in their drinking water supplies," he said. "Nitrates toli coliforms for fecal coliforms aren't necessarily the hazard, but they’re accepted as an indicator and, in this case, an indicator that the groundwater supplies which are used for drinking water sources were being contaminated with sewage."

"A review of the composite of all the information collected on approximately 15% of the properties indicates that 92% have been documented to either have a known or a suspected malfunctioning on-lot sewage system, and/or have a drinking water with a positive test for nitrates, toli coliforms or fecal coliforms. In the final analysis, all of the properties within the village of Lairdsville could be considered to currently have their health and safety adversely affected or threatened in one way or another. So that kind of characterized the problem," Bickhart's report concluded.

The survey and sampling pointed to the fact that Lairdsville needed some type of sewage treatment system.

In 2012, the Lycoming Water and Sewer Authority was asked by the township's supervisors to assist in understanding the sewage planning process and the options available in the current regulatory environment, Bickhart said.

The process was not easy as the plans were revised and updated again and again.

"These were good supervisors, several boards of supervisors and they did the best they could with sorting this out — they needed to understand what they were doing," he said.

"Essentially, there were seven versions of the plan over a seven-and-a-half-year period. None of these plans were wrong, or totally unacceptable to DEP. Most of the early revisions were primarily the result of what DEP identified as a submission of incomplete information. These plans were typical at the time, but the requirements kept changing. If the proposal of the 2009 plan had been constructed, these facilities would now be significantly outdated and, I believe, struggling to meet today's requirements and with little capability to be upgraded," Bickhart said.

In addition to the residents of Lairdsville being required to connect to the new sewer system, residents of Franklin Township will now be required to have their on-lot systems regularly pumped and inspected.

All these regulations went into effect the day the ribbon was cut for the plant.

At the May meeting of LCWSA, Christine Weigle, executive director, told members of the authority that the operating budget for the Lairdsville facility is expected to be around $90,000 per year.

"We took a best shot at the number of EDUs (Equivalent Dwelling Unit) we thought that would be in the system, about 72 EDUs. Take $30,000 a year divided by 70-some EDUs divided by four months, and that's how you come up with $110 a month," Weigle said

"I just want to point out this is very frustrating…when you look at their operations and maintenance portion of their budget, of that $30,000, that's $10,000. The lab analysis portion for nitrogen and phosphorus sampling, the Chesapeake Bay portion of sampling alone is $4,400 of that $10,000. That's two samples a month for nitrogen phosphorus per the permit requirements," Weigle said.

Weigle said that she had asked the EPA if that could be "less aggressive," but unfortunately, in the world of the NPDS, or their monthly reporting National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit, they are required under the permit for Chesapeake Bay to determine the nitrogen and phosphorus load.

"That's two samples per week," she said. "And when you look at the cost of operation and maintenance, it is 44%. If you look at the total cost, it's 14%. That means it's over $15 a month of that $110 for testing nitrogen and phosphorus requirements for a plant that's regulated at 25,000 gallons a day. Same number of samples that we have to take this treatment plan. Same number of samples are taken in Williamsport, Harrisburg, Wilkes Barre, Scranton — there's no forgiveness."

The actual number of household units, or EDUs, which are being connected to the system is 52, including Renn Elementary School, which is situated adjacent to the plant.

In a community where the average income is $29,000 per year, the cost of the construction of the sewage treatment plant was funded through federal, state and local funds. Now, residents are faced with the cost of connecting to the system through the installation of laterals — a costly process that runs thousands of dollars. But, there is help for qualifying homeowners, according to Weigle.

"There is a lateral assistance program to help low to moderate income homeowners with the sewer lateral installation through the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program," Weigle said.

"SEDA-COG (SEDA Council of Governments) is administering the program directly on behalf of the township. However, homeowners who may qualify or are interested can contact the township secretary directly who can assist in coordination of that application process," she said.

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