ALCOSAN Plans New Plants

The Allegheny County Sanitary Authority is floating a pair of trial balloons for public comment. The authority has released plans to build a pair of satellite treatment plants that would only operate on heavy rainfall or snowmelt days. ALCOSAN is in the process of finding ways to reduce the amount of sewage that flows into the region’s rivers on wet weather days. The authority is under a consent decree from the EPA to have a plan in place by 2012. The plants would take the extra water, filter out the solids and then disinfect the water before dumping it into the river. The two plants being proposed would be in Munhall and Millvale. The facilities come with an estimated combined price tag of $60 million. ALCOSAN spokesperson Nancy Barylak says the facility in Munhall is ready to build but they are waiting on the final design of Rt. 28 before the plant on the Allegheny can be finalized. She says these could be the first of several satellite treatment facilities. Barylak says it is cheaper and better for the environment to build these types of plants than it is to separate the decades-old combined storm and sewer pipes. Separation would mean massive digging and pipe laying projects and the end result would still dump all the debris, oils, salts and other chemicals found on roadways into the rivers. The proposed treatment plants would be placed on approximately 1.5-acre parcels but Barylak says nearly all of the tanks and equipment is underground. Other communities across the country have designed the remaining structures to blend in with the community and some have finished the land with basketball courts, tennis courts or walking trails. If the plans are approved construction work could begin in 2012. Public comment will be taken until June 12 at the ALCOSAN web page.