Trash collection rules to be updated

It’s been more than a quarter century since the laws now on the books for trash collection in Souderton were written and it’s time to make some changes, Souderton Borough Council members agreed at council’s Aug. 13 public works session.

One of the issues recently raised involves cases in which trash cans are kept full time in front yards or other highly visible places. Wile Avenue resident Tom McIntyre was recently told to move his trash container from where it is stored next to the sidewalk, although McIntyre said he was previously told by borough officials that having the container there is not a violation of the rules.

That portion of the ordinance will likely be tweaked in the update, Mike Coll, borough manager, said.

The current rules, passed in 1985, include a restriction on putting trash containers out for pickup more than 24 hours before the scheduled collection time.

“That generally is being followed throughout the

borough and it’s a fairly common UHVWULFWLRQ yRu fiQG LQ D ORW RI RUdinances,” Coll said.

The ordinance does not, however, address how close to the sidewalk or where trash containers can be stored.

It does require that garbage shall not be kept at the home for more than seven days and that the trash containers be water tight, prevent WKH HQWUy RI flLHV DQG EH SURSHUOy maintained, including being kept free of garbage residue on the bottom or sides of the container.

Another portion of the rules includes a ban on putting garbage on the ground, but council member Jeff Gross said there are cases where people are keeping items on their property that the residents say are being recycled.

“We weren’t even doing recycling when this was put in, so WKHUH’V VRPH GHfiQLWH DUHDV WKDW QHHG WR EH FODULfiHG,” GURVV VDLG of the current rules.

With several trash collection companies making pickups on various days, rather than all on WKH VDPH GDy, LW’V GLIfiFuOW WR NHHS track of whether some containers are left out on the sidewalk longer than allowed, council member Richard Godshall said.

“Basically, we’re looking at six days a week, we’re seeing trash cans out at the street,” council member Steven Toy said.

Trash collections in Souderton are allowed between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays.

Coll said he will meet with Robert Bricker, the borough’s solicitor, to have a proposed update written for the trash collection rules.

“We’ll try to work at piecing together something everybody feels is a little clearer and we can work with,” he said.

Along with the update to the trash collection rules, council also is planning a review and update of other rules, including ones for using couches or other indoor furniture as outdoor furniture and having inoperable or unlicensed vehicles on private property, but most of those issues are in separate property maintenance portions of the ordinances and are not part of the waste collection rules, Coll said. In other Souderton mattersW • :LWK D OLWWOH OHVV WKDQ D PRQWK to go in this summer’s swim season, Souderton Community Pool is on target to meet expectations for the year, Coll said.

“We’re hitting our budget projections there rather nicely,” he said.

• 7KHUH wDV DQ HOHFWULF RuWDJH at the borough’s sewer treatment plant after the July 26 storms.

The plant is designed to have a dual feed, with separate electrical hookups to Sellersville and HDWfiHOG, DQG WR VwLWFK RvHU WR the other one if one of those goes down, Coll said.

In this case, it appears the system started a switch, but then may have tried to backtrack, he said.

“It got itself caught up and the system then locked out,” Coll said.

There is a monitoring system to send an alert if the power goes off, but part of that system was also knocked out in this case, so it’s not known exactly when the shutdown happened, he said. It was discovered the morning of July 27.

6RPH SDUWLDOOy WUHDWHG HIfluHQW was discharged from the plant during the outage, he said.

“It was being treated, but not to the level our permit requires, because of the lack of power,” Coll said.

By mid-morning, the discharges were stopped and the sewage was kept in a tank at the plant. The dis- charges started again about 5 p.m. after repairs were made, Coll said.

Pennsylvania Fish C Game offiFLDOV KDvH FKHFNHG RuW WKH GLVcharge area, he said.

“There was no stream damage, QR fiVK NLOO RU DQyWKLQJ OLNH WKDW,” Coll said.

7KH HIfluHQW GLVFKDUJHG EHIRUH the outage was discovered had lower-than-usual levels of dissolved oxygen, he said. Air is usually added during the treatment process.

7KH VWDWH FRuOG fiQH WKH ERUough for the discharges, but, so far, there’s been no indication that will happen, Coll said.

An insurance claim has been opened, he said. The costs include about $11,000 of repairs, along with another couple thousand dollars for pumps, he said.

The borough, its electrical contractor and PPL Electric Utilities are also meeting to review the incident, he said.