Residents raise stink over proposed sewer line

Cedar Cliff residents raised a stink over a UAJA-proposed sewer line Wednesday during a standing-room-only Board of Supervisors meeting.

The current pump station situation in the Gray’s Woods Planned Community necessitated the need to look at some alternate sewage-carrying capabilities, said Cory Miller, University Area Joint Authority executive director. Several pump stations currently carry sewage from the development to a station on Ghaner Road, where it eventually makes its way to the treatment facility.

The problem is that all pump stations are designed for a certain amount of capacity, Miller said. The plan has always been to do something in the future when regional growth became large enough. Pump stations can sometimes fail, meaning if the Ghaner station were to stop working, all stations behind it would be unable to carry waste from the area.

So UAJA began looking at alternates, he said, leading to a proposal for a gravity-fed line that would follow Sellers Lane north to Stevenson Road. A new pump would then feed a new line east along Michael Road, through the Cedar Cliff community, and on to the treatment plant. The gravity line would also run south until it meets the Halfmoon Township line.

The line would lie outside of the regional growth boundary and the sewer service area, he said. Patton Township would have to make a formal application to the Centre Region Council of Governments to amend the SSA. The plan would then be reviewed on a regional level by the Centre Region Planning Commission, and would be voted on by COG, with five “yes” votes needed to pass.

Bob Jeanmenne, president of the Cedar Cliff Homeowners Association, asked Miller what guarantees he could make that this sewage pipe would never leak and affect the groundwater. Miller said no such guarantee could ever be made, prompting Jeanmenne to point out that the homes in the area are serviced by wells and septic systems.

Since the pipe would be within 20-30 feet of homeowners wells, he said, and there are no plans to bring a water pipe along that area, he said he felt the sewer pipe needed to go to a safer area.

Jerry Mahan, a Ceder Cliff resident, said all the homeowners in the development made major personal investments in wells and septic systems. A leak in a pipe would drop property values.

Miller assured the crowd that no process for implementing the proposed line has begun yet, saying if the proposal gets to the point where the 537 plan is changed, that’s when the UAJA can start looking at alternate lines and begin safety assessments.

“This is not necessarily the final solution,” he said. “This is just the first step.”

Councilman Jeff Luck said he wanted to stress that the evening’s discussion isn’t the beginning of a process, but rather gathering the feedback of residents. He agreed safety was an important issue, as was getting the public’s reaction before starting anything.

Centre Region Planning Agency Director Jim May said his agency can get in touch with more residents, gather some more feedback and work with these residents to create some alternate sewer lines to bring back to the board.

“Our intention is to include anyone who wants to be part of the conversation,” Chairman Elliot Abrams said.

This story was originally published September 9, 2015 at 10:08 PM with the headline "Residents raise stink over proposed sewer line ."