Clean Water Advocacy - Newsroom - AMSA in the News
McDade Set Aside Cash to Fix Sewers
By Borys Krawczeniuk 12/13/2002
If local sewer authorities end up having to spend a lot of money to deal with
sewers that overflow during heavy rains, they won't have a lot of places to go
for money besides ratepayers.
There are some.
The state has a low-interest loan program known commonly as Pennvest. That money
is at lower interest rates than banks and bond companies, but it's limited and
it has to be paid back.
Lackawanna County sewer authorities that must address combined sewer overflows
are a bit lucky: There's also most of a $30 million pot of federal money set
aside almost a decade ago.
That was courtesy of former U.S. Rep. Joseph McDade, who specially earmarked it
in a federal budget and announced it in September 1996.
The money was originally supposed to be split $20 million for acid mine drainage
and $10 million for combined sewer overflows, but federal officials have since
said all of it can be used for overflows, county planner Harry Lindsay said.
The Lackawanna River Basin Sewer Authority has tapped that for about $2 million
and the Lower Lackawanna Valley Sanitary Authority for up to $500,000 more, Mr.
Lindsay said. The money doesn't have to be paid back.
Scranton Sewer Authority officials are also talking with the county about
tapping the fund, which covers 55 percent of a project's costs.
But $30 million isn't enough to deal with all the likely costs, which mostly
remain unknown and unstudied. The Lackawanna River Basin Sewer Authority, which
has the best idea of long-term costs so far, has a $22 million estimate alone.
The $30 million should be enough to show the federal Environmental Protection
Agency that local officials are serious about solving their problems, said
Bernard McGurl, executive director of the Lackawanna River Corridor Association,
which helped develop the 1993 river study that convinced Mr. McDade to earmark
the money.
Gene Barrett, chairman of the Scranton Sewer Authority board, said local state
legislators and congressmen can expect letters from him asking them to establish
state or federal grant programs or earmark money.
It's only fair that a federal government that allowed the construction of
combined sewer overflows and later changed the rules come up with money to cover
its "unfunded mandate," he said.
"I would think the seriousness of it and the cost would warrant some kind of
special allocation or special program," Mr. Barrett said.
Adam Krantz, a spokesman for the Association of Metropolitan Sewer Agencies, a
Washington, D.C., trade group, agrees.
"It's a huge deal nationwide," he said.
Combined sewer systems, remnants of the country's early infrastructure and found
in older communities, serve roughly 772 communities where about 40 million
people live, according to the EPA. They are mostly in the Northeast and Midwest.
In 1996, the agency estimated the cost of correcting all the problems at $44.7
billion.
U.S. Rep. Don Sherwood said a new federal funding program is unlikely because of
the nation's budget woes. However, he said he'd be willing to consider
earmarking money for individual projects.
bkrawczeniuk
©Scranton Times Tribune 2002