Jan 25, 2008 7:45 am US/Eastern
Health Department Concerned Over Sewage In Yough
ELIZABETH TOWNSHIP (KDKA) ―
The Allegheny County Health Department has issued an order for the Sanitary Authority in Elizabeth Township to figure out why sewage is flowing into the Youghiogheny River.
The order requires the Elizabeth Township Sanitary Authority to figure out what is causing the problem and fix it or else face some major fines.
"They have had sewage flowing untreated into the river for what we now know is a period of several months and we want that stopped," says Dr. Bruce Dixon, of the County Health Department.
Officials with Elizabeth Township say they have hired a French-owned company to operate the plant. And a spokesperson for that company says the problem isn't at the plant.
"The overflow is actually happening within the collection system or the pipes before it can get to the treatment plant," said spokesperson Lou Ann Baker.
Meantime, Elizabeth Township residents say the smell can get downright unbearable sometimes.
"What we got around here, most of the time, is the smell from it. It is just horrendous smells, and a lot of times it was bearable and a lot of times it was really bad," says George Fellabaum, who lives downstream.
But Dr. Dixon says it could be worse.
"The good thing is that it's occurring in the winter when people are not by and large in the river," said Dixon," But certainly exposure to this amount of sewage can produce a fair amount of disease."
The order is requiring the Sanitary Authority to take some steps by Feb 1st.
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