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Group files appeal on plant now under construction
The plant, being constructed by Shallenberger Construction, will be allowed to discharge into the Monongahela River before it has the treatment technology needed to remove total dissolved solids from its wastewater, said a release issued Thursday by Clean Water Action.
"The Mon already has more pollution than our drinking water standards allow," said Myron Arnowitt, the state director for the group. "We cannot allow more pollution sources to discharge into the Mon until there is a plan to cleanup the river," he said.
More than 350,000 Pennsylvanians rely on the Monongahela River for drinking water. In both 2008 and 2009, and most recently last month, TDS levels in the Mon exceeded federal drinking water standards.
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The company's original proposal for a wastewater treatment plant includes only rudimentary treatment systems that would not be able to remove TDS, the group said.
DEP's agreement will give the company more than three years to upgrade its treatment technology to meet TDS removal standards; however, discharges will be allowed from the plant prior to these upgrades, it said.
"From our perspective, since the plant is a new plant it should be able to treat (for TDS) from the beginning," Arnowitt said. "DEP should require that any new wastewater plant meet water quality standards from their first day of operation," he said.
The appeal was filed Tuesday with the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board. A DEP spokesman could not be reached late Thursday for comment.
Sewage Plant : 10/16/2009
This plant should not have been approved in the 1st place. 500,000 means 1000 trucks per day for a plant located by the Masontown Bridge on 21. DEP is looking out for who?
gas drilling wastewater treatment : 10/16/2009
I am not a member of this group but I totally agree with them. It is unforgivable that the Department of Environmental PROTECTION allow them to poison our drinking water for three years, or even a day. A new plant should be able to purify that water from day one. It won't take three years for the river to become another Dunkard Creek on a much larger scale. It is the Department of Environmental PROTECTION, not Department of Environmental RECOVERY. If the people now employeed by DEP do not understand that and do not do that job, they should be replaced. Good Lord! We are turning into another NY Love Canal while the people who are supposed to be protecting us are instead protecting the companies who are poisoning us. Old coal mines, long wall mining, more power plants. Get out of bed and do the job you were hired to do, or just abolish the DEP entirely. Sounds like an Erin Brockovich movie in the making.
Ha, ha. : 10/16/2009
Where do they think all the current TDS overload originated? I am not surprised "a DEP spokesman" could not be reached for comment.
Clean Water Action!!! : 10/16/2009
Thank goodness for this group to challenge the DEP and this plant. DEP needs to start protecting the environment and stop just issuing permits, just to legalize pollution.
Best Friends : 10/16/2009
Please.......the DEP is a good friend to Big Business. Almose anything goes. It is a shadow goverment within the state goverment. You just try and put in a traditional septic system on your property or disturb a wetlands. See if you get 3 + years.
gas drilling waste water : 10/17/2009
Best Friends hit the nail on the head. You might even get evicted from your home if you try to put in a traditional system on your property. But all the big companies have to do is $ (bucks) and they get whatever they want
