Masontown shutting down old water system
MASONTOWN — Borough council on Tuesday discussed closing down its water plant and water storage tank, which haven’t been used since the borough began buying water from a local authority a month ago.
Council President Frank McLaughlin asked engineer Bill Johnson of Sleighter Engineering to prepare a plan to close the plant after he told council it costs $800 a month to keep the facility ready to be restarted.
The filters in the plant are being kept full of water, but council could begin the process of draining the filters and shutting down the plant, Johnson said.
He said the plant and tank haven’t been used since the borough turned on its interconnection with the Southwestern Pennsylvania Water Authority on Jan. 10.
“We have two weeks from tonight to determine the fate of the water tank,” Johnson said.
The deadline in a consent order from the state Department of Environmental Protection to come up with a plan to repair or close the tank has been extended to Feb. 28, he said.
Council’s next meeting is that day.
Johnson said council can ask the DEP to rescind the consent order if council decides to remove the tank from service. If council wants to keep the tank in use, a plan to make the $450,000 in needed repairs must be submitted to the DEP, he said.
Demolishing and removing the tank would cost more than $90,000, McLaughlin said.
The million-gallon tank was built in 1962.
“We don’t need it anymore. Let’s discontinue it,” Councilman Harry Lee said.
He said a local property owner is interested in buying the tank from the borough, he said.
Responding to a question from Councilman John Stoffa, Johnson said the authority provides 5.8 million gallons of water as a back-up supply for the borough.
In other infrastructure business, Johnson told council that the DEP has informed the municipal authority that the Cats Run sewage treatment plant is likely to be hydraulically overloaded due to water infiltrating the system.
He said he is asking the DEP to add the Cats Run plant to the corrective action plan for the Big Run sewage treatment plant, which is overloaded.
The borough has hired a contractor to inspect the Big Run sewer lines using a camera to find where water is leaking in.
Inspecting the 39,000 feet of pipe in the Cats Run system would cost $60,000 using the contract that is inspecting the Big Run system, Johnson said.
In addition, council agreed to ask the state Department of Transportation to conduct a traffic study aimed at restricting truck traffic on Route 166 in the borough.