W. Penn, Walker to meet with DEP over previously submitted

West Penn and Walker Township officials are likely to meet with the Department of Environmental Protection next month over their previously submitted Act 537 sewage facility plan.

The situation came to light after Brian Book, service area director of Rettew Associates Inc., met with West Penn Township supervisors during a meeting Monday at the West Penn Fire Company.

West Penn had its full slate of supervisors on hand, along with its engineer and solicitor, while Walker was represented by Supervisor Christine Troxell, board Chairman William McMullen and township engineer Dave Horst.

Book said the purpose of his visit was to review the status of the Act 537 plan, and to prepare a meeting with DEP, which has offered to meet with representatives of both West Penn and Walker in their Northeast Regional Office sometime between Dec. 6 and Dec. 20 to discuss the plan.

In preparation of that meeting, Book urged supervisors to discuss any issues or questions they may have to get to DEP in advance.

DEP’s issues with the plan

Both townships previously adopted resolutions for their revised Act 537 sewage facilities plan to DEP.

However, Book on Monday said DEP has issues with the following:

• The resolutions were imprecise in their implementation language.

• The resolutions did not include the signed and embossed originals (three for each township).

• The plan did not incorporate soil testing of the community on-lot disposal system solutions.

• The methods used to assemble the plan were confusing, made more so because the three-ring binders came apart in shipping. This led to questions about the appropriate approvals and comment periods.

Book said the discussion about the method of assembly of the plan seems inconsistent with the April 28, 2014, DEP coordination meeting attended by Rettew and members of the townships.

He said perhaps DEP has changed some of its rules since that meeting.

Supervisors respond

West Penn Supervisor Tony Prudenti voiced his extreme displeasure with the time and money both townships have already invested in the matter.

Book said he understood, and that he believes it would be in the best interests of both townships to meet with DEP.

“That’s the quickest way to get to an outcome you can live with,” he said.

Afterward, Dean said, “My thinking is we should meet with DEP.”

Prudenti agreed, and said the situation needs to be addressed.

One of the requirements of the plan per DEP is that the township has an on-lot septic maintenance ordinance in place.

The preferred plan is an on-lot disposal system because there are no big infrastructure costs.

It was previously stated that DEP wants a solution presented in the plan for every user. If there are any users that cannot do on-lot systems, they have to have access to a community system.