Centre Region’s wastewater treatment facility facing thousands in repairs from power surges
The wastewater treatment plant that serves much of the Centre Region is facing costly repairs for the second time in six months.
The University Area Joint Authority expects to pay at least $150,000 to repair all of the motor drives in its advanced water treatment building after they were damaged by a power surge Thursday, Executive Director Cory Miller wrote in an email Tuesday.
The damage was discovered after a thunderstorm passed through Centre County. More than 1,600 lightning strikes were recorded from 6-9 p.m. in Centre County, AccuWeather meteorologist Jake Sojda said.
The facility, Miller wrote, was “caught with no spare parts” after using its remaining inventory to replace components in two of its motor drives.
“Getting parts right now is a nightmare. We have scoured the planet to find the parts we need, and are in the process of getting them here,” Miller wrote. “... When a spare is used, a replacement is immediately ordered. In this case, when we used the last two, we reordered, but also searched everywhere we could to locate someone on the planet with inventory they would part with immediately. We were lucky and found someone. They are, of course, more expensive, and the shipping is outrageous, but it is what we have to do.”
The facility hopes to have some parts delivered by Wednesday, which would allow for one production unit to be restarted, and be in full service by the end of the week.
“We are not waiting for normal working hours,” Miller wrote. “We are working on things at whatever time the parts arrive.”
Water quality, Miller wrote, “may be an issue for a few days.” The water may have a higher mineral content, but should return to normal after a few days.
All water reuse customers were asked to reduce consumption Monday. Golf courses in Happy Valley were cut from water use Sunday, while RedLine Speed Shine closed its Shiloh Road location due to an “extremely low recycled water level.”
It was the first time the car wash had to close because of low water levels in its 12 years in business. The car wash reopened Tuesday.
UAJA expected to pay about $60,000 in January to clean up more than 5,000 gallons of oil that was dumped into its sanitary sewer system.
This story was originally published June 21, 2022 at 1:35 PM.