Wastewater plant upgrades have helped during wet winter
$4 million improvement project has cut overf low number to zero
LANSDALE >> While it seems like rain and snow have been a constant over the current winter, it’s been nothing that Lansdale’s Wastewater Treatment Plant can’t handle.
Staff and council members reported recently that a series of capacity upgrades to the borough’s wastewater treatment plant have shown their
value so far this winter.
“In 2018 — this was kind of a cool thing — we recorded 68.3 inches of rain
at the wastewater treatment plant,” said Councilman Leon Angelichio.
“This is an obnoxious amount of rain. This is so far above what we’re accustomed to — it’s just an obscene amount of water,” he said.
The borough’s wastewater treatment plant is located on Ninth Street, just behind the electric department offices, and engineering studies in the late 1970s led to the town constructing the current plant, which opened in 1980.
At that time the plant was rated by the state Department of Environmental Protection to treat 2.5 million gallons of water flow per day, and a re-rating in 1996 upgraded that level to 4.5 million gallons per day.
From 2012 into 2014, council discussed and debated at length a series of major upgrades to the plant, designed to increase both the storage capacity of water being held at the plant for treatment, and the size of lines that facilitate flow through the plant during high rain events.
At that time, the plant had experienced four sewer and stormwater overflows in 2009 and 2010, five in 2011, one in 2012 and two in 2013, according to MediaNews Group archives.
In 2014 council bid out (twice) a roughly $4 million upgrade project meant to increase the plant’s processing capacity to as high as eight million gallons per day during high rain events, and the upgrade project was finished in the summer of 2016. Angelichio reported
on Feb. 6 that while 2018 provided the toughest test yet of the plant and the increased capacity, it seems to have passed with flying colors.
“The wastewater treatment plant processed 1.3 billion gallons of water, through the plant, which is the most water ever, that has gone through the plant” in a calendar year, Angelichio said.
“The neat part of this is, thanks to the peak flow upgrade project that was completed several years ago, there were zero overflows. No overflows — all of the flow was processed completely through the plant,” he said.
The 1.3 billion gallon total was roughly 30 percent more than the plant had processed in any prior year, Angelichio told council, and “not a drop” left the plant without being fully treated.
“Thanks to council and the committee for authorizing the project to be completed. The upgrade has improved the operations of the plant, and during wet weather conditions, and reduced overflows,” he said.
“That project came at considerable cost to the borough, and it is absolutely money well spent,” Angelichio said.
The results of those upgrades were the result of extensive planning by previous and current borough administrations, Angelichio said, as well as the wastewater treatment plant staff, led by plant Superintendent Dan Shinskie, who helped the borough’s engineering firm identify the needed upgrades and oversee the work.
“It’s a testament to proper planning, putting money where it’s needed, and a testament to the professionals that work in that department, and our engineers,” Angelichio said.
“To identify where we had deficiencies, how to properly pay for those so as not to overburden the taxpayers, and it comes out as a positive. Dan (Shinskie) thanked us, but I think we should be thanking Dan, and I think we should be thanking the professionals that work in that department,” he said.
Council then gave Shinskie a round of applause meant for him and the rest of the plant’s staff, and he replied with one sentence.
“Thank you for investing the money in us,” he said.
Lansdale’s borough council next meets at 7 p.m. on Feb. 20 at the borough municipal building, 1 Vine St.