Raw Sewage

HANCOCK - Hancock accidentally dumped 146,000 gallons of raw sewage into the Potomac River after problems at one of the town's old pumping stations on Main Street, Town Manager Louis Close said Wednesday. Close said the problem started Monday when the windings on a motor shorted out, tripping circuit breakers at the station. The emergency generator could not be used, and sewage overran the holding tanks and spilled into a stream in an area called Ice Hollow. That stream feeds into the Potomac, Close said.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. -- The Berkeley County Public Service Sewer District has been sued by property owners who say their home has been flooded with raw sewage four times since February 2008. Sewer district general counsel William F. Rohrbaugh said he was aware of the complaint filed in Berkeley County Circuit Clerk Virginia M. Sine's office on behalf of Dolly and Rex Fergus of 46 Larkspur Lane, but declined to comment other than to acknowledge the substance of the complaint. Rohrbaugh did say that the sewer district retained legal counsel to file a response to the suit.

BERKELEY SPRINGS, W.Va. - When a clogged sewage line was unclogged by pressure Tuesday, raw sewage was forced into the lines of a home at 17 Vernon St. When the Warm Springs Public Service District responded to a call Tuesday from homeowner Deborah Harris, who said raw sewage was gushing outside a blocked sewage pipe, department workers used 200 pounds of pressure to unclog it - a force that "flooded the home with sewage," Harris said. The sewage was forced into the bathroom toilet, sink and bathtub, and into the kitchen sink, which overflowed onto the floors, Harris said.

An agreement between the City of Hagerstown and the Maryland Department of the Environment over punishment and corrective measures for the city's sewer system problems has been delayed by a recent lawsuit threat, the mayor said. Mayor William M. Breichner said this week that a mid-November letter from Rockville, Md.-based environmental activist group Potomac Riverkeeper spurred the delay. According to the letter, the group said it would sue the city under the U.S. Clean Water Act if it did not correct within 60 days problems that led to several spills of raw sewage and partially treated wastewater over the past few years.

Sewer work planned Work could begin in mid-March on a $2.2 million construction project to fix deteriorating, blocked and leaking sewer pipes in Hagerstown's North End, officials said Tuesday. The aging and cracked pipes have caused sewage backups in the North End, officials said. The work is scheduled to be completed by Sept. 1, when the city's consent order to pump raw sewage into Hamilton Run expires, said Richard Parks, project manager for Acer Engineers & Consultants Inc. Replacing an 18-inch main sewer line that runs parallel to Hamilton Run might require digging up several back yards along Valleybrook Drive, Brookside Terrace and Potomac Heights Avenue.

HANCOCK- The odor in the alley brought back memories for Jim True, but not in a good way. "I could smell the sewage," True said to town officials during Hancock's town council meeting Wednesday. "Then I saw flies buzzin' all around there. " True told council members that there was a manhole that repeatedly leaked raw sewage in the alley behind the four buildings he owns along Blue Hill Road, near Hancock Elementary School. After describing the most recent leak in February, True, 69, asked the town to fix the manhole.

HANCOCK - A spill of 146,000 gallons of raw sewage into the Potomac River wasn't the first in Hancock, and a Maryland Department of Environment official said Thursday the town could face penalties. Bill Limbert, Maryland Department of the Environment water management district manager in charge of compliance, said while that amount spilled might not seem like much, it poses a potential hazard to humans and the environment. He said there have been several other spills connected with the sewage collection system in Hancock in the past couple years.

By BRENDAN KIRBY / Staff Writer photo: RIC DUGAN / staff photographer WILLIAMSPORT - Washington County health officials are investigating complaints that raw sewage is being dumped in a neighborhood near Conococheague Creek. Greg Swain, a Maugansville resident who farms property off of Rock Hill Road, said he saw a recreational vehicle dump sewage in the intersection of Rock Hill and Everly roads last Friday. He said he was unable to get the vehicle's license number.

Washington County Commissioner Ronald L. Bowers said Hagerstown could fix its sewage problems, such as pumping raw sewage into Hamilton Run, if it cooperated with the county. Bowers said the sewage being pumped into the streams during periods of heavy rain includes sewage from county residents in Maugansville, Orchard Hills and Fountain Head and is sewage that should go to the county's underutilized Conococheague Wastewater Treatment Plant. Even when the city fixes the North End sewage collection system, the city's sewer plant won't have enough capacity to treat that sewage, he said.

chambersburg@herald-mail.com CHAMBERSBURG, PA. - Federal funding totaling $165,000 for sewer and soccer projects in Franklin County was announced Monday during a visit by U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa. Shuster announced $140,000 in funding for a sewer line extension project near the village of Fannettsburg, Pa., in Metal Township. The money comes from a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development appropriation bill that Shuster said he earmarked specifically for the project.

In 1980, Shepherdstown opened its first public sewage treatment plant, and for the first time in the town's history, it stopped dumping raw sewage into the Potomac River. The town reached another milestone Friday, when it dedicated a new ultramodern, high-tech $10.1 million sewage treatment plant that doubles the capacity of the old plant to 800,000 gallons per day as well as meets new federal mandates to protect the Chesapeake Bay. West Virginia's eight easternmost counties are under the same mandate.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. -- The Berkeley County Public Service Sewer District has been sued by property owners who say their home has been flooded with raw sewage four times since February 2008. Sewer district general counsel William F. Rohrbaugh said he was aware of the complaint filed in Berkeley County Circuit Clerk Virginia M. Sine's office on behalf of Dolly and Rex Fergus of 46 Larkspur Lane, but declined to comment other than to acknowledge the substance of the complaint. Rohrbaugh did say that the sewer district retained legal counsel to file a response to the suit.

BOONSBORO -- Three Boonsboro residents who live along North Main Street have experienced raw sewage backing up into their homes, and town officials said an engineer's report traced a March 7 backup in two of the houses to a nearby Weis Markets store. Kevin Chambers, chairman of the Boonsboro Municipal Utilities Commission, said Tuesday that one of the residents experienced sewage backups four times, another resident experienced backups twice and a third resident experienced at least one backup.

BERKELEY SPRINGS, W.Va. - When a clogged sewage line was unclogged by pressure Tuesday, raw sewage was forced into the lines of a home at 17 Vernon St. When the Warm Springs Public Service District responded to a call Tuesday from homeowner Deborah Harris, who said raw sewage was gushing outside a blocked sewage pipe, department workers used 200 pounds of pressure to unclog it - a force that "flooded the home with sewage," Harris said. The sewage was forced into the bathroom toilet, sink and bathtub, and into the kitchen sink, which overflowed onto the floors, Harris said.

( Editor's Note: On July 6, we asked readers of the editorial page to tell us what they did with the $150 property tax refund checks recently sent out by the Washington County government. What follows are the replies. The winner will be named at the end of this column.) Reliving our youth To the editor: How to spend $150? Being a senior citizen, I decided to relive my childhood. Superman was our hero, so my husband and I went to see "Superman Returns.

HANCOCK- The odor in the alley brought back memories for Jim True, but not in a good way. "I could smell the sewage," True said to town officials during Hancock's town council meeting Wednesday. "Then I saw flies buzzin' all around there. " True told council members that there was a manhole that repeatedly leaked raw sewage in the alley behind the four buildings he owns along Blue Hill Road, near Hancock Elementary School. After describing the most recent leak in February, True, 69, asked the town to fix the manhole.

chambersburg@herald-mail.com CHAMBERSBURG, PA. - Federal funding totaling $165,000 for sewer and soccer projects in Franklin County was announced Monday during a visit by U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa. Shuster announced $140,000 in funding for a sewer line extension project near the village of Fannettsburg, Pa., in Metal Township. The money comes from a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development appropriation bill that Shuster said he earmarked specifically for the project.

Week of Sept. 11, 1955 Despite the fact several weeks have elapsed since the heavy rains, the county roads department is still hard at work repairing the washouts and other damage the downpours caused to the more than 250 miles of dirt roads in the county. Superintendent E. Eugene Geary said yesterday that about 85 percent of his working force has been busy on the repair work and much work remains to be done. Of interest to Hagerstown residents who obtain drinking water from the Potomac River, is word from Cumberland that a $2,000,000 sewage treatment plant there is over 20 percent completed.

An agreement between the City of Hagerstown and the Maryland Department of the Environment over punishment and corrective measures for the city's sewer system problems has been delayed by a recent lawsuit threat, the mayor said. Mayor William M. Breichner said this week that a mid-November letter from Rockville, Md.-based environmental activist group Potomac Riverkeeper spurred the delay. According to the letter, the group said it would sue the city under the U.S. Clean Water Act if it did not correct within 60 days problems that led to several spills of raw sewage and partially treated wastewater over the past few years.

gregs@herald-mail.com HAGERSTOWN - A Rockville, Md., environmental activist group has begun the official process to sue the City of Hagerstown under federal laws governing water cleanliness. Lawyers for Rockville-based Potomac Riverkeeper said in a letter sent to the city Friday that the complaint stems from problems with the city's Waste Water Treatment Plant on Frederick Street. The group said it will sue the city within 60 days if several problems are not corrected by that time.