Petersburg’s Borough Assembly approved paying for two new wastewater studies this month.
Public Works Director Aaron Marohl said those studies will help the Borough comply with stricter wastewater permits from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
“What they’ve done is they’ve set some deadlines for us to meet over the life of the five-year permit, and the two first deadlines are a disinfection study,” Marohl said in an interview.
The Assembly approved spending $101,000 for a wastewater disinfection study, and granted the award to HDR Engineering, Inc. on Sept. 8.
That study will help the Public Works Department understand its options for meeting the new requirements. Marohl said the study is due by November 1.
HDR Engineering will also do an industrial wastewater pre-treatment study for the borough. Last week, the Assembly approved a separate $88,700 contract with the company.
“Presently, we have one single industrial polluter that discharges into our wastewater stream, and that’s the baler facility,” Marohl said.
Public Works will need to start pre-treating the baler water, or cleaning it before it enters the wastewater plant. The study will look at what pollutants come from the baler, and identify ways to implement a pre-treatment program.
Marohl expects the pre-treatment study will be done around January.
He said both studies will give the borough a better idea of what the next steps are for upgrading Petersburg’s wastewater system.
