Published: September 19, 2009 12:53 am      

DEP chief applauds stimulus-funded water, sewer project

CRESSON — The head of the state Department of Environmental Protection inspected the work of a local contractor and complimented municipal officials for the quick and efficient use of federal stimulus money on improvements that will be around 50 years from now.

DEP Secretary John Hanger was in Cresson as part of a statewide effort to highlight successes of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. He was most interested in projects that reduce pollution and create jobs.

“We’re here to celebrate the great work that you all have been doing with a helping hand from the president and the governor through the stimulus program,” Hanger told a small group on Cathedral Avenue.

With trucks and earth-moving equipment belonging to Guyer Bros. of New Enterprise as a backdrop, Hanger said he is especially pleased with a sewer-line replacement in the borough.

Construction is nearly complete on about half of Cresson Municipal Authority’s water lines. Sewer line work also is progressing. Work will start next month on a $4 million upgrade and expansion of the wastewater treatment plant to reduce untreated sewage flowing into the Conemaugh River headwaters.

When complete, about $12 million in loans and grants will have been spent on the Cresson system.

All of the system’s water and sewer lines will have been replaced since 1995, said authority engineer Rich Wray of Cresson.

Sewer line replacement is needed to eliminate infiltration that reduces flow to the treatment plant.

Water line replacement is needed to eliminate cracked and broken lines, reducing water loss that Wray estimates is 30 percent or more. Normal loss is 10 percent or less, he said.

Hanger thanked construction workers who stopped the equipment and joined the small group.

“If we make wise investments with this money, it will improve our quality of life. This project will pay off for 40 or 50 years,” he said. “This is tremendously well-spent taxpayer money.”

Michael McGough, Cresson Borough Council president and an authority member, said improvements have been needed for more than 25 years. Work on some of the water and sewer lines began about a decade ago.

“Federal and state money has helped keep the costs down to where residents can afford it,” he said.

Water flows from the Cresson treatment plant into the Conemaugh River, which eventually reaches the Ohio River.

“There’s a lot of cleanup of the headwaters being done,” McGough said.

The state received about $220 million in stimulus money that is being distributed to communities in grants and loans for drinking and sewer projects.