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Lancaster outlines long-term plan to reduce combined sewer overflows, cites cost and upstream limits
Summary
City of Lancaster staff described options for a second long-term control plan to reduce combined sewer overflows into the Conestoga River, noting five overflow locations, past investments of about $88 million, an EPA/DEP consent decree from 2017 and the need to balance water-quality gains with residential cost burden.
Chris Hildich, deputy director of public works for utilities for the City of Lancaster, outlined options and constraints as the city develops a second long-term control plan to reduce combined sewer overflows (CSOs) into the Conestoga River.
Hildich opened the presentation by saying, “We're here tonight for our combined sewer overflow control plan,” and summarized the city's work to date, regulatory obligations and next steps toward a preferred alternative that will be negotiated with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).
The city has five marked CSO outfalls: a North CSO near the McCasky campus on Clay Street, one at Stevens Avenue, two near the county park at Susquehanna and Strawberry streets, and the largest at Ingleside off New Danville Pike. Hildich said the system, built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, can produce CSO events “55 to 65 times a year on average,” with event durations from minutes to several hours depending on storms.
He described the scale…
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