Add Latex Gloves to the List of Things Being Flushed

As more people use latex gloves during the coronavirus epidemic, more people are also flushing them down the toilet.

Sometimes it seems like, eventually, everything ends up getting flushed down a toilet.

First it was "flushable" wipes which are not so flushable. Then it was anti-septic wipes as people tried to disinfect their surfaces during the coronavirus epidemic.

Now, its gloves.

Remember, whatever you flush down the toilet, usually makes its way to the wastewater treatment plant, where it gums up the works.

That's why the Pottstown Borough Authority was prepared to spend up to $1 million to install a new screening system at the plant, to keep those unwanted items out of the treatment apparatus.

It came just in time.

The new screening equipment before installation at the 

Pottstown Wastewater Treatment Plant.

In the last four weeks since it was installed, the screen has caught "20 yards of rags, wipes, latex gloves, you name it," Brent Wagner, Pottstown's utilities director, told the authority during Tuesday night's borough authority meeting.

"For the first time we have no latex gloves or plastic in the clarifier," he said.

"I couldn't imagine what we'd be seeing if we didn't have that screen in place," he said.

"We were getting inundated with gloves, and we're still getting wipes," said Authority Manager Justin Keller.

Originally estimated at $1 million, Keller said Wagner and his crew figured out how to do much of the work of installing the screen equipment themselves to cut the cost almost in half.

"Once we got into the installation, there were some aspects we were not comfortable doing in-house, so we had to bring in a contractor," said Keller.

Nevertheless, the ultimate cost of installing the screen was about $300,000 less than if the entire job had been put out to bid, Keller said.

Another way in which the pandemic has affected operations at the sewer plant was the need to construct a barrier between the staff and drivers coming to the plant to empty their septic trucks.

"We had to shut down bulk drop-offs for three days while we built a little shed outside the control building for the drivers to use," Wagner said.

No Energy From Waste Anytime Soon

After an extensive exploration, the authority is stepping back from the idea of trying to extract energy from the waste processed at the plant to generate electricity to run the plant.

Last night's meeting was held online.

Engineer Josh Fox told the authority Tuesday night that the study his firm undertook found that it would cost more than $19 million to alter the plant to be able to produce electricity, which would only produce about $1 million a year in electric cost savings.

"It's a very big undertaking undertaking," Fox said.

There are a number of grants which might be accessed, but even with them, it would still cost the authority about $4.8 million "and that's with a lot of risks and assumptions, built into that number," said Fox.

"Everything would have to fall perfecting to get to that number," said Authority member David Renn. He said other projects, such as new water meters, should take precedence.

"It's really more of a want than a need," Authority Manager Justin Keller said of the project. The project will be shelved until the finances look more favorable.

I'm No Longer Meeting You Halfway

Norman Rockwell's famed painting,

'Freedom of Speech' depicts that speech

happening at a town meeting.

Perhaps the most important, and least appealing aspect of municipal government is the much-maligned public meeting.

They are almost always in the evening, when all of the good TV shows are on, and it can be hard to navigate the language and procedures to get a feel for what's being accomplished -- or not accomplished.

And let's face it, people in the audience, and on the dias, have been known to drone on at public meetings.

That's where your local news sources comes in. We usually have a fair bit of experience in that department.

In my case, it's more than 30 years and, remember, I'm being paid to be there -- at least for now..

The public meeting is the place where elected officials, and the paid staff, interact with and are, to some extent, accountable to the people who elected them and pay their salaries.

The public meeting is where those things most likely to affect your life on a daily basis -- things like trash pick-up, water from the tap, your neighbor's noisy rooster -- can be taken up and addressed, not always to our satisfaction.

But knowing which meeting to attend, when your issue is going to come up, why a particular motion is important, can be a difficult needle to thread. After all, who wants to go to them all?

And all too often, important matters come up that were either not on the agenda, or whose importance was not clearly outlined on the agenda.

Traditionally, this is where local news has served a public purpose, paying folks like me to know what meeting is important, and to be there when the agenda looks boring but something vital comes up unexpectedly.

As I have written about here previously, and, some would argue, ad nauseum, that vital public service is being threatened by a variety of factors. Local newspapers are struggling and closing and the public they once served is less informed as a result.

That is true here in Pottstown as it is all across the country.

All of which brings me to today's point.

Thanks to government offices being closed Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Tuesday saw seven different meetings (that I know of) that should have been covered:

The Fifth Street home where an Airbnb is proposed.

• The Pottstown Zoning Hearing Board heard testimony on a request to convert a large home on Fifth Street into an Airbnb, an application borough council opposed. I didn't go to that meeting, so I don't know yet what happened. And so, neither do most of you.
• In the next room in borough hall, the Pottstown Borough Authority met and, according to the agenda, set the new water rates for 2020. An attachment to the agenda made it clear what they are and I have reported on it previously, but I didn't go to that meeting, so I don't know yet if anything else happened. And so, neither do most of you.
• In Royersford, the Spring-Ford Area School Board met for a work session. One of the items was discussion of a $176 million preliminary budget for the coming school year. The board is scheduled to vote on adopting it at another meeting Monday night, during which two other municipal meetings that should be covered will take place (more on that later). I didn't go to the school board meeting Tuesday, so I don't know what was said. And so, neither do most of you.
• In Limerick, the township supervisors met and their agenda included discussion of the construction of a new firehouse for the Linfield Fire Company. I didn't go that meeting either, so I don't know if anything happened. And so, neither do most of you.
• The Douglass (Mont.) Township Supervisors also met Tuesday, but because they do not post their agenda online, I can't even tell you what I missed because I wasn't there. And so, neither do most of you know what happened either.
• In Upper Pottsgrove, I've confirmed the Township Commissioners voted unanimously to advertise an ordinance to abolish the township planning commission and replace it with a planning committee. I wasn't there, so I won't have a report on that for a day or two. The final vote on whether to move ahead with it is scheduled for Feb. 3.
• The meeting I did go to was the Phoenixville School Board, which, evidently, had a rocky start to its year. With several new board members, the video from the Jan. 13 meeting shows the board convening, heading immediately into closed-door executive session and coming out more than an hour later and immediately adjourning. Tuesday's meeting was a continuation of that meeting.

U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan

Among the things discussed was the revelation that the Pennsylvania Department of Education has cited the district for disproportionately suspending students of color.

The picture is muddled and I am meeting with Superintendent Alan Fegleyy and Assistant Superintendent LeRoy Whitehead today at noon to get it sorted out before I report something incorrectly about a very important and sensitive subject.

Speaking of today, if you've read this far and you live in the 6th Congressional District, you may want to attend a meeting I will be covering. U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan will be holding her 15th Town Hall meeting at the Colonial Theater on Bridge Street at 7 p.m.

As you may have read recently, in 2019, Houlahan held more town hall meetings than any other member of Pennsylvania's Congressional delegation, a report put together by CoverThis.com.

That means I will miss the Lower Pottsgrove Township Commissioners meeting tonight where the agenda indicates architects will present the latest plans for the new $8.2 million township building.

But, check out Joe Zlomek's Sanatoga Post news site. He will likely be there and have a report for you.

And when Monday rolls around, there are three meetings which should be covered. In addition to the previously mentioned Spring-Ford School Board's voting meeting, the North Coventry Township Supervisors will meet.

Last night, Chairman Jim Marks, who was at the regional planning meeting I was covering, revealed that two important officials, longtime Township Manager Kevin Hennessey and Police Chief Robert Schurr are both retiring, "so we're dealing with that."

An older version of the plan for New Hanover Town Center.

And perhaps most significantly, the New Hanover Township Supervisors and Planning Commission will conduct a joint meeting on the proposed massive New Hanover Town Center project, which includes shopping centers and more than 700 new homes.

That meeting will be held at the township recreation center, 2373 Hoffmansville Road, starting at 6:30 p.m., according to the legal notice published in The Mercury on Jan. 15.

"We're expecting a crowd," New Hanover Supervisor Kurt Zebrowsky said at last night's regional planning meeting. "It's going to be some meeting."

Don't worry, I'm not going to miss that one.

A Costly Problem You Just Can't Flush Away

It's been nine months since Pottstown Borough Manager Justin Keller asked people to think twice about using 'flushable wipes.'

But the problem of these wipes clogging up the works at the wastewater treatment plant have not let up and the Pottstown Borough Authority is moving ahead with a project to combat the problem.

Tuesday night, the authority heard from Utilities Manager Brent Wagner who said preparations for a new filter system to catch the cloth before it gets into the plant are now complete and the parts have been ordered.

When it's done, it will have cost the public $500,000 to try to keep the irksome wipes out of the plant.

First, a bit of clarification.

Evidently, the last time Keller used the phrase "flushable wipes," he got a sternly worded letter from the "non-woven fabrics industry."

So now, in the ultimate act of political correctness, borough staff refer to them as "non-dispersable" cloths, or "rags," according to Authority Engineer Josh Fox.

Hey, who cares what it says on the label right?

Wagner said crews recently pulled out bunch of the wipes that had knitting themselves together and it was as big as the floor area in a good-sized bathroom.

"I could tell you stories about those things," said Borough Authority Board member Aram Ecker, who is a plumber in town.

Photo by Ryerson University

Ryerson researcher Barry Orr holds a tangle of wipes retrieved
from a wastewater collection plant.

Anyhoo, Pottstown is not the only place this is a problem.

Last year Royersford issued a public service announcement about the problems the wipes can cause not only in wastewater treatment plants, but in people's homes as well, according to an article in PATCH.

In April, Forbes magazine reported on a study of 101 different wipes "and not one of them passed a flushability test. Instead, the wipes failed to fall apart or disperse safely in tests. In other words, cleansing and diaper wipes shouldn't be flushed (even if they're labeled as 'flushable') because they'll clog sewer systems, according to the first-ever study by Ryerson University in Ontario," Forbes reported.

Twenty three of the wipes tested were labeled as flushable by the manufacturer. 

"Results showed that not one single wipe was able to fall apart or disperse safely through the sewer system test, which can negatively impact household plumbing, municipal sewage infrastructure, and consequently, the environment," according to a press release on the study.

“This research confirms conclusively what those of us in the industry already knew―that single-use wipes, including cleansing and diaper wipes, cannot be safely flushed, even those labelled as ‘flushable,’” report lead Barry Orr, said in the release.

"From 2010 to 2018 the City of Toronto logged nearly 10,000 calls per year from residences due to 'sewer service line-blocks' relating to factors such as disposal of non-flushable materials down household toilets, according to the press release.

And the price is paid even by those who don't use the wipes, and end up having to call their plumber, in higher sewer bills to pay for projects like Pottstown's, according to Ryerson's study.

“Defining ‘Flushability’ for Sewer Use clearly highlights the need for a legislated standard definition around the term ‘flushable,’ that ensures a product is safe to be disposed of down the toilet,” said Orr. “This will in turn lead to imposing stricter regulations for the labelling of products. The current practice is misleading consumers and creating harm on so many levels. This study is an important step towards regulating manufacturers to change their packaging.”

Apparently the industry has tried to avoid government regulation by adopting a voluntary code of practice for labeling which, Orr says, is inadequate because the standard they use to define "flushability," i.e. that it will 'break apart,' relies on using turbulent water that is unlike slow-flowing sewage systems.
On its website, the Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry, yes Virginia, there is such a thing, has guidelines for defining 'flushability,' to help make labeling more accurate, a set of guidelines now it it's fourth edition!

Here is part of what the site says:

We recognize that the appeal of these products comes from the advantages they offer in effectiveness, cleanliness, convenience and ease of use. However, how and where they are used can encourage flushing as the means for disposal which, in certain cases, is not the correct route.

Together, our aim is to reduce the amount of non-flushable material in the wastewater stream. Therefore, it is important that even products which are likely to be flushed (even though not designed to be), and products which do not meet our Guidelines include the “Do Not Flush” symbol on package labelling.

And you thought this article wouldn't be fun.

So to sum up, an industry that markets its products is 'flushable,' is gumming up sewer systems all over the place, costing Pottstown sewer system ratepayers $500,000, and their answer is to include a "Do Not Flush" symbol on the label of a product people buy because its 'flushable.'

Ain't capitalism grand?

And on that note, here is a link to the Tweets from the meeting.

Authority Budget Carries Second Water Rate Hike

Right on schedule, water rates for Pottstown water system customers are set to increase by about 4.5 percent in 2020.

The increase is part of a three-year rate increase schedule adopted last year that will, over its course, increase the average annual water bill by about $56 by the final rate increase in 2021.

For the average residential customer, the 2020 increase will add about $16 to the average water bill, according to calculations by Gerry Keszczyk, budget analyst in the borough's finance department.

Every water customer pays a base rate, but it varies depending on the size of your water line.

The base rate is the fee you pay for water service no matter how much water you use and is applied toward capital projects to improve the water treatment and distribution system. 

An additional consumption rate is applied to the readings on water meters which measure how much water is used at a property and is called the usage rate.

Currently, most residential Pottstown customers of the system pay a base rate of $43 per quarter or $172 per year. In 2020, that same base rate will increase by 4.65 percent to $45 per quarter, or $180 per year -- an $8 annual increase.

The average residential customer in West, Lower and Upper Pottsgrove already pays a $45 per quarter base rate and would see that base rate increase to $47 per quarter under the budget endorsed Wednesday night by the borough authority board.

Over the course of the next three years, the base rate increase represents a 14.6 percent increase for the average Pottstown customer over the current rate and a 14 percent hike for water customers in the three Pottsgrove townships.

As for the usage rate, the current rate is $3.20 for every cubic foot of water, which equals about 748 gallons said Finance Director Janice Lee.

Keszczyk said the average residential customer uses 13 cubic feet of water per quarter, or 9,724 gallons.

In 2020, the usage rate will increase to $3.35 per cubic foot. That means the average residential usage rate will increase by 4.69 percent from $41.60 per quarter to $43.55 per quarter -- an increase of about $1.95, or 7.80 per year.  Add that to the $8 cost of the base rate increase and you come out with an annual increase of about $16 per average household.

The rate hike is part of several budgets adopted unanimously Wednesday night by the borough authority board. Ultimately, said Lee, they are part of the entire borough budget adopted by borough council and do not become official until that happens.

Under the $45.3 million draft borough budget unveiled last week, property taxes would go up by 4.25 percent, in addition to the water rate increases. Sewer rates remain the same under the plan.

Authority board member Aram Ecker made note Wednesday of the savings expected once the new sewer sludge dryer is fully functioning, producing a product that can be sold as fertilizer rather than having to be landfilled at a high cost.

"Is there any chance sewer rates could be dropped as a result?" Ecker asked.

Lee and Authority Manager Justin Keller replied that the sewer system still has debts to pay off, and the better course of action is to keep them stable, using the additional revenue, once the debts are paid off, to maintain the aging system and replace large capital items.

"It was worth a shot," Ecker said ruefully.

The budgets recommended to council by the vote Tuesday include a water budget of $7,245,252; water capital budget of $537,000; a sewer budget of $9,420,534; a sewer capital budget of $515,000 and a sewer lines fund of $748,700.

Cleaner Water

As an example of one expense, as yet undetermined, the water capital fund will shoulder is a required change to how Pottstown's drinking water is treated.

The Pottstown Water Treatment Plant
on Old  Reading Pike in Stowe.

Wednesday night Borough Solicitor Vincent Pompo outlined the terms of a consent decree with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

Driven by higher safety standards required by the EPA, the state has tested surface drinking water sources and the lower reaches of the Schuylkill River, where Pottstown gets its water, show a higher level of cryposporidium bacteria than EPA standards allow.

The strain of bacteria of concern is resistant to chlorine, which is how the Pottstown plant treats its water, so a new system that also used chlorine dioxide must be installed to meet the new standards.

As a result, the Pottstown Water Treatment Plan must implement the new treatment system by April 1, 2022.  The cost has not yet been determined.

Pompo said all systems that draw water from the lower reaches of the Schuylkill, including Royersford and Philadelphia will have to comply with the new standard. Similar measures are also being taken in portions of the Susquehanna and several western Pennsylvania rivers he said.

The improvements come on top of other similar measures adopted in May, again at the behest of stricter federal government drinking water quality standards.

Those changes resulted in the water treatment plant having to add more chlorine to the water in order to prevent microbial contamination at a much smaller level than was previously required.

And with that, here are the Tweets from last night's meeting.

Year Two of Water Rate Hikes

Pottstown Reduces Water Rates for Fire Sprinklers

Photo by Evan Brandt

The crowd of about 25 people gathered Tuesday night to hear if the Pottstown Borough Authority had decided to lower the water rates for fire sprinkler systems.

Who says you can't fight borough hall?

In June, a group of irate residents of the new homes in the Lower Pottsgrove development of Spring Valley Farms showed up at a borough authority meeting I did not attend.

They were upset about the quarter water bills they were receiving, not for the drinking and bath water, but their fire sprinkler systems.

The rates were awfully high, they said, adding with some additional ire, that the fact that they would have to pay these quarterly bills was not disclosed to them when they bought their homes.

There wasn't much that the authority could do about a dispute with their home seller, but they could do something about the rates.

And, to some moderate surprise, they did.

Borough Authority Manager Justin Keller said the finance department took the complaints to heart.

A comparison of the authority's rates to surrounding areas and found that not only had Pottstown not changed them in a long time, but they were on the high side, this despite the fact that he insisted they represented the cost of providing the water and maintaining the water lines.

Nevertheless, most of the 25 or so people at last night's meeting had one-inch water lines that feed their sprinkler systems, and their bills were reduced from $40.58 per quarter to $25 per quarter, a 38.4 percent decrease.

Some, not entirely satisfied with still having to pay such bills on recently purchased homes starting at $290,000, asked for a refund of their previous payments at the higher rate.

There will be no refunds, said Chairman Jeff Chomnuk. "How is that even legal?" asked a homeowner who admitted to not being "technical."

Authority Solicitor Vincent Pompo explained that legally, new rates are "not retroactive."

"Oh, OK," replied the homeowner.

Keller also explained that a separate line for the sprinkler system is necessary to guarantee maximum pressure at all times. "If you had one line and you were watering your lawn when a fire started, we would not be able to guarantee there would be enough pressure for the sprinkler system when its needed," he said.

"I'm happy," said another.

The reduction in rates is not even the biggest savings. According to the rates Keller outlined verbally, those with a 1.5-inch line to their sprinkler systems will see a 61 percent decrease, from $77 per quarter to $30.

Those with a two-inch line will see a 54 percent reduction from $86.63 per quarter to $40 per quarter, he said.

A three-quarter-inch line will see a 6.5 percent savings, from $21.40 per quarter to $20 per quarter under the new rates adopted last night.

And with that, here are the Tweets from the meeting

Getting Sprinkled With Savings

Borough Authority Has Say Over Sewer Sale in Upper

The Pottstown Borough Authority may have decided Tuesday night it has no interest in being among the bidders for the sewer conveyance system Upper Pottsgrove Township is considering selling, but that doesn't mean they won't have a say in the matter.

During discussion at Tuesday's authority meeting, board members briefly considered the idea of being bidders for the Upper Pottsgrove system, but quickly dismissed it.

"The authority could certainly qualify to buy it, but I doubt you would be top bidder," said Josh Fox with the authority's engineering firm, Herbert Rowland and Grubic.

Because the township is looking to the sale of the system to pay down debt; make its pension system whole and possible use the funding for new township facilities, it would be looking for the top bidder.

The township has issued a "request for qualifications," which is the first step in determining what entities, both public and private, are qualified to bid for the system. The decision to sell the system has not been made and will depend on the price.

Upper Pottsgrove has hired a public financing specialist called PFM, which is working on a share of the sale price, to undertake the investigation and solicit and qualify the bids.

Beyond the unlikelihood of the authority not likely being the high bidder, "I don't think we could handle it," said board member Tom Carroll, referring to all the responsibilities the authority already has, running both the water and sewer treatment plants.

But unlike other municipal systems that have lately been getting bought up by private companies, due largely to a legal change in how system assets are evaluated, Upper Pottsgrove does not control the treatment plant where its sewage is treated.

That honor belongs to the Pottstown Borough Authority.

There is a "sewer services agreement" under which the authority agrees to accept and treat the township's outflow and the authority would have to approve the re-assignment of that agreement to a new owner, or the new owner could negotiate a new agreement with the authority, explained Authority Solicitor Vincent Pompo.

Additionally, moving that agreement from a government body to a for-profit company would also require approval by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, said Pompo.

"This is going to be a sticky wickett," said authority member David Renn.

Finance Director Janice Lee also pointed out that currently, the borough does Upper Pottsgrove's billing for water and sewer. If the sewer system has a new owner, it would complicate the usual remedy for non-payment, shutting off the water.

"I see this as a major issue," said Lee, who suggested the new owners would have to take on the task of billing as well.

She also noted that Upper Pottsgrove "owes the authority $400,000" for a sewer upgrade called a "siphon," which has not yet been paid and could cut into their profits from selling the system.

None of those considerations were raised Monday night, when Upper Pottsgrove Commissioners Chairman Trace Slinkerd told the board that things were moving ahead smoothly with the investigation of selling the system.

He said the Upper Pottsgrove has set a target for September or October to review bids on the sewer system.

Stormy Discussion

In the wake of a severe thunderstorm and flash flood that caused more than $1 million just to property owned by the borough, Borough Authority member Tom Carroll again raised the question of charging a fee for managing stormwater.

Pottstown's stormwater system was overwhelmed by
Thursday's storm. Here, water shooting up out of the system,
not in, forced this manhole cover off its fitting
at the intersection of East and North Hanover streets.

Authority Manager Justin Keller said the Manatawny Creek watershed was hit with about six inches
of rain in a single hour.

And although the Schuylkill River rose 13.2 feet from the storm, the water and sewer treatment plants, which are both located along the river, don't start having problems until the river reaches 13.6 feet, said Utilities Director Brent Wagner.

During the July 11 storm, this collapse arch behind a home on 

Walnut Street swelled and overflowed with stormwater.

Nevertheless, said board member Tom Carroll said the borough should again look at the idea of charging a fee to manage stormwater. The more impervious surface a property has, the more stormwater it sends into the system, the higher the fee is the theory.

In 2015, the authority paid $56,000 for a "Stormwater Master Plan," that would inventory all the borough's stormwater intakes, arches, outlets and storm sewer pipes.

One model for funding these anti-pollution and stormwater control measures is to charge property owners by the amount of stormwater that leaves their property.

That is one reason why many municipalities have adopted new requirements for containing and infiltrating stormwater back into the ground before it hits the streets and streams.

Erosion from the storm had made the sinkhole even bigger,

as seen in this July 12 photo.

Pottstown’s ordinance was adopted last July .

The owners of large parking lots, which shunt vast sheets of water into storm sewers, may soon find they are being charged for having the borough authority manage and treat it that water where currently they pay no more than the universal property tax rate.

“I’m not anxious to be the first town in the area to start charging for stormwater,” Authority Board
Chairman Jeff Chomnuk said in 2015, worrying it could discourage commercial investment.

But there is another worry -- a lawsuit.

When West Chester Borough adopted just such an ordinance, West Chester University refused to pay, saying the stormwater fee was a tax and, as part of the state higher education system, it was tax exempt.

The storm also opened up a new sinkhole in an alley off Airy Street 

between Spruce and North Hanover streets.

And when West Chester sued, the college sought to have it thrown out of court on that basis. But that argument failed and on Monday, a court ruled the suit could go forward, Pompo told the authority members.

Currently, Pottstown is waiting to see how that lawsuit is resolved, said Authority Manager Justin Keller. "I don't want to spin my wheels and spend staff time putting something together that the court ultimately throws out," he said.

Carroll argued the time spent waiting for the lawsuit to be resolved could be spent preparing for the eventuality that the new fee could be imposed, but Keller said that work is already done.

Making Your Own Energy

Another interesting item to come out of last night's meeting is a plan to make the Pottstown sewer treatment plant a "net zero" facility in terms of energy.

Photo ruefully stolen from The Pottstown Post (Sorry Joe.)

In other words, the authority voted to spend $34,000 on a feasibility study to see if changes could be made to the operation of the sewer plant that would allow it to use no more electricity than it can produce on site.

The study will look at the cost/benefit of changing over the system operations from aerobic digesters
to anaerobic:

• This would reduce pollutants in the effluent the plant discharges into the Schuylkill River; 
• which could reduce electric costs by no longer requiring blowers; 
• provide more methane to allow the plant to produce its own electricity and further reduce costs; 
• and use exhaust from idling septic trucks to provide heat to the digester process to reduce costs even more.

Josh Fox, who is with the borough's engineering firm of Herbert Rowland and Grubic, said another advantage is it would make what is now undesirable at the plant, things like grease and oil, more desirable because of the amount of BTUs it contains.

"All the worst stuff has a higher energy value," he said.

It could even make use of food waste.

Consider the case of spoiled milk, he said. Most grocery stores have it hauled away to a landfill, but "spoiled milk has a high BTU value and is full of the stuff the bugs (which digest the waste at the plant) love to eat," he said.

"It's pretty exciting," said Fox. "There are a lot of potential benefits."

And on that appetizing note, here are the Tweets from the meeting:

Not So Fast Upper Pottsgrove

Federal Rule Will Increase Chlorine Smell in Water

If you think your public water smells too much like chlorine now, wait until next month.

During last night's Borough Authority Meeting, Utilities Manager Brent Wagner said a new federal drinking water standard will be in place by May 1.

It requires any water sample tested to have a chlorine residual level of .2 milligrams per liter.

Meeting that standard will require adding more chlorine to the water, said Wagner, particularly in the summer when the warmer water temperature dissolves the chlorine more quickly.

"The bottom line is people's water is going to smell more like chlorine, not just in Pottstown, but across the country," Wagner said.

The higher bar for chlorine infusion also means that its more likely the system will have localized "boil water" alerts Wagner said, not because contamination has been found, but because a lower chlorine makes it more possible.

"Right now, we only have an alert if some contamination is found," said Wagner. "Now, anytime a sample shows a level below .2 we'll have to have a boil water alert."

It will most likely happen at "dead ends" in the system "because we don't have a flow of water past those locations."

He told the authority board the staff will attempt to make adjustments to the system to avoid those problems," but it's going to be interesting."

With that, here are the Tweets from last night's meeting:

Love That Dirty Water

New $5M Sludge Dryer Almost Operational

Pottstown's $5 million installation of a next generation sludge dryers is nearing its completion.

Utilities Manager Brent Wagner told the Pottstown Borough Authority Board Tuesday that the machine has been installed, but the bugs are still being worked out.

"I was down there and there were some hairy problems, but I was impressed with how quickly they were worked out, and mostly by our staff," said authority board member David Renn.

Wagner said the new dryer, whose cost is also being partially covered by Lower Pottsgrove, Upper Pottsgrove and West Pottsgrove townships, all of which send their sewage to the plant, is about five to six weeks behind schedule.

The delay, Wagner said, was due large to delays in PECO getting natural gas service to the site and into the dryer building. And the primary problem facing the plant's start up is insufficient natural gas pressure, which is preventing the heating unit in the dryer to get hot enough to dray the slewage sludge adequately, he said.

"It's all material handling," Wagner said. "It's a really good piece of equipment. It's a matter of fine-tuning the operation."

The new technology is so energy efficient, and produces a product ready for application to farm fields as fertilizer, that the savings will cover the costs in about 10 years. But first it cost more money because the technology is so new, the state Department of Environmental Protection was not quite sure how to regulate it and required additional safeguards, which drove up the cost by $1.3 million. 

However it will be worth it in the end, he said, because of the quality of the dried product which comes out at the end of the process.

"It's an improvement for farmers who can use it on their fields," said Wagner, who said it "looks like a corn flake."

There is some rush to finish because while the new dryer was built, the old one had to be removed. That means for the past few months, the sewer plant's untreated sludge has been trucked to a landfill, which is extremely expensive.

Gryphon CEO W. Tid Griffin with the end product of his dryer.

The new dryer is made by Owensboro, Ken.-based Gryphon Environmental LLC and Wagner said when problems began after installation, Gryphon President and CEO W. Tid Griffin, "was on a plane that night and he was here the next day. They have been very good about working with us."

That may be because Gryphon has a lot riding on the success of the new dryer, it is one of the first, if not the first, to be used at a municipal plant. There is one currently being used at a Tyson Chicken plant, processing chicken waste, but a successful start in Pottstown will give the company a foot into the door of the municipal market.

Perhaps that's why "40 to 50 people have already been through our plant to see the new equipment," said Wagner.

But he assured the board that despite all the visitors, he is not getting distracted.  "I promise you we will get what we want," he said.

Storm Grates and Potholes

What authority board member Tom Carroll would like, on the other hand, is for the borough authority to lend a financial hand to the borough in cleaning out stormwater intakes.

He showed the board a photo of a blocked intake that he took on his way to the meeting and said maybe 80 percent of those he looked at were fully or partially blocked.

He asked the board to direct the administration to see if the authority could legally provide funding to the borough for the clean-outs using the logic that if stormwater doesn't go into the inlet, it will ultimately find its way into the sanitary sewer system, costing the authority money.

Carroll could not get any of the other board members to second his motion, but it came up again at the end of the night when the topic of a street sweeper came up.

Finance Director Janice Lee said in 2014, the borough hired a company to sweep all Pottstown's streets once, at a cost of $15,000. It was done again in 2015 at a cost of $20,000.

Yerger said in each case, between two and three tons of grit and stones were removed from the streets, all things which get washed into and clog stormwater sewers if they are not picked up by the street sweeper.

Carroll questioned if the cost of doing the street-sweeping was ultimately less than the cost in man-hours to have borough staffers out cleaning out each storm inlet with shovels.

"And not only that," added Borough Manager Justin Keller. "The other questions is what are we pulling them away from to clean those inlets again and again? They could be out fixing potholes."

And with that thought, here are the Tweets from the meeting:

The Story of Sludge

5% Water Rate Hikes Coming for Next Three Years

Customers of the Pottstown public water system will shoulder rate increases of about 5 percent each year for the next three years according to borough officials.

For the average customer, the rate hikes will result in more than $56 in increased annual costs for the average customer by 2021

With a unanimous vote Tuesday night, the Pottstown Borough Authority Board raised the 2019 quarterly base rate for borough customers by $2, from $41 to $43 for the majority of customers -- about 7,500 accounts.

That represents an increase of 4.87 percent.

Customers in the outlying Montgomery County townships on the system also will see their base rate increase by $2, from $43 to $45 per quarter.

That represents an increase of 4.65 percent and will affect just under 3,700 customers in Lower Pottsgrove, West Pottsgrove and Upper Pottsgrove.

The base rate is the fee you pay for water service no matter how much water you use. An additional usage rate is applied to the readings on water meters which measure how much water is used at a property.

Finance Director Janice Lee said the usage or consumption fee will be raised by 15 cents, an increase of 4.9 percent.

That brings the usage rate from $3.05 to $3.20 for every 748 gallons of water used.

Further, Lee and Budget Analyst Gerald Keszczyk both said the authority will impose identical increases to the water rates, both base and usage, for 2020 and 2021 as well, a motion which was adopted by the authority board at its Sept. 18 meeting.

Keszczyk said the increases will result in about $4.72 more per quarter for most customers or $18.88 more in water costs in 2019 and a total hike of $56.64 by 2021.

Over the course of the next three years, the base rate increase represents a 14.6 percent increase for the average Pottstown customer over the current rate and a 14 percent hike for water customers in the three Pottsgroves.

There will also be a 12 cent-per-gallon increase in the bulk water rate, from $3.96 per thousand  gallons to $4.08 -- an increase of 3 percent -- as the result of a second authority board vote.

For the North Coventry Township's water system, which buys its water in bulk from Pottstown, that increase will not go into affect until April as the agreement between the two requires six month's notice of a rate change.

The revenues from the increased rates -- about $94,000 -- will go directly into improving the water system by bolstering the capital fund, said Authority member David Renn.

"All that money goes right back into the ground," he said Monday.

The authority’s capital budget, for both the water and sewer systems, is being used according to a regularly updated five-year plan to repair and replace aging infrastructure in a water and sewer system now roughly 100 years old.

Putting money into the capital budget ahead of projects has eliminated the need for the authority to borrow to pay for needed upgrades and repairs — ultimately a cost savings as interest does not have to be paid out on bonds, but is rather earned on the money being saved.
The authority last raised rates in May of 2017 when it increased the water usage rate by 9.7 percent, from $2.78 to $3.05 per 748 gallons; and the base rate by 17 percent, from $35 to $41 per quarter.

There is no increase in sewer rates planned for 2019.

The water rate increases are part of the $6.8 million water budget and the $1.9 million water capital budget unanimously adopted last month by the borough authority board.

The water budget, as well as the $9.3 million sewer fund; the $4.5 million sewer capital fund and the $611,000 sewer lines fund are all part and parcel of the $49 million budget proposal presented to Pottstown Borough Council earlier this month, which calls for a 12 percent property tax hike.

According to the minutes from the Sept. 18 authority meeting, the water and sewer budget includes the addition "of an in-house utilities inspector position, with a civil engineering degree, as recommended by the Financial Sustainability Oversight Committee."

And with that, here are the Tweets from the meeting:

Water Rate Hikes Coming for Next 3 Years

Sludge Dryer Project Already $1.3M Over-Budget

Pottstown Borough Authority officials insist this new Gryphon Environmental dryer system will be most cost efficient and be easier and cheaper to repair and maintain that the maintenance-plagued dryer now in operation at the Pottstown Wastewater Treatment Plant.

There isn't even a shovel in the ground.

In fact, the unit hasn't even been built yet.

But the project to replace the 10-year-old maintenance-plagued sewer sludge dryer at the Pottstown Wastewater Treatment Plant is already over budget -- by $1.3 million.

What was supposed to cost $3.7 million will now cost at least $5 million.

According to Authority Manager Justin Keller and Authority Engineer Tom Weld, the primary reason is the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

Not only did it take the DEP seven whole months to approve the air emissions permit, but because "the technology is new and DEP doesn't know how to regulate it, so they were very conservative," said Keller.

The Gryphon system is in place working in Kentucky, where it processes chicken waste at a Tyson plant said Weld, adding "but this is the first time it is being used to process municipal waste."

As a result, a number of upgrades were required by DEP that not only accounted for more expensive equipment -- like a "bio-filter" instead of an "air scrubber" -- but also required a bigger footprint to accommodate the new equipment.

The new equipment and larger footprint also made some of the contractors conservative with their bidding as well, so the bids came in higher, said Weld.

Lower Pottsgrove Township Manager Ed Wagner and West Pottsgrove Township Manager Craig Lloyd were both at the meeting concerned about the price jump.

Wagner said Lower Pottsgrove ratepayers face an increase of $357,000, a 27 percent increase in the amount the township budgeted for its share of dryer costs. The township's share jumped from $959,746 to $1,317,153, he said.

"My ratepayers can't afford that," he said, asking the authority to delay accepting the bids top give Lower Pottsgrove time to absorb the additional costs into its budget.

But the authority board voted unanimously to accept the bids, in large part because the current dryer is no longer worth fixing and the longer they wait, the more into the winter they get hauling untreated sludge to the landfill.

"Once we get into February, you're looking at another $350,000," warned Utilities Manager Brent Wagner.

Keller said there are several ways the cost could be brought down. One is a "fine screen" project at the sewer plant which was slated to cost $1 million has been "re-engineered" to reduce the cost to $500,000. Another $500,000 grant for which the authority has applied would, if awarded, free up $1 million to cover much of the cost over-run.

He said the media coverage over the "flushable wipes" issue had been included in the grant materials and may help its chances.

Additionally, the project is expected to take more than a year, even though the authority hopes to have the dryer online and running again by December or January.

Keller said much of the additional cost "an be pushed off to 2019, which would give the townships time to adjust their budgets for 2019."

Lloyd said as much of those additional costs that can be pushed into next year, the better for his township's budget.

Here are the Tweets from the meeting:

Lower Pottsgrove Pondering 7.4% Tax Hike for 2018

Lower Pottsgrove Township Commissioners Thursday night approved a tentative $6.4 million 2018 budget that would raise taxes by 7.4 percent if adopted next month without change.

The tentative budget's $6,3267,371 in spending represents a 2.4 percent increase in spending over the 2017 amount of $6,175,765.

But the tax increase can be attributed to one single item, the commissioners' desire to create a capital reserve fund, a saving account for major projects, said Township Manager Ed Wagner.

The .25 millage increase is dedicated entirely to that fund, he said.

According to Montgomery County's list of all millage rates, Lower Pottsgrove's is currently 3.368 mills. So a .25 millage increase for the capital reserve tax brings the total to 3.618 mills, or an increase of 7.42 percent.

Wagner said  there has been no major project in the past year that has brought this need to the front of the commissioners' table. "We're just trying to be prudent and plan ahead," he said.

For the average property owner, whose assessment is $125,000, it means an increase of $31.25 on the 2018 property tax bill.

The commissioners voted unanimously to advertise the budget and make it available to the public for a minimum of 30 days. Final adoption does not take place until December.

The blue area is currently Pennsylvania American Water's

franchise area. The tan area shows the proposed expansion

In other matters, the commissioners also approved a letter of support for the expansion of Pennsylvania American Water's franchise area into the township to provide water for the massive Sanatoga Green project of more than 500 housing units, a medical facility and, possibly, a hotel.

When pressure tests were done, it became evident that the Pottstown Borough Authority system could not provide enough water pressure to- run sprinkler systems and meet other water needs.

The commissioners did not have the final word. That rests with the Pennsylvania Utilities Commission, a process which could take some time, said Sanatoga Green developer Ted Draushcak

No Water or Sewer Rate Hike Planned for 2018

Let's face it folks. You read the above headline, you breathed a sigh of relief and moved on.

Well, for those curious souls who want a little more detail, I have a little more detail.

First, don't forget that the average Pottstown water bill went up 14 percent in July. (There is a link to that story below).

Second, both budgets are preliminary, according to Finance Director Janice Lee.

She said borough council must ultimately approve both and the sewer budget vote is nothing more than a recommendation.

"We don't even have the health insurance numbers yet," she said.

Nevertheless, here's where things stand.

The total 2018 water fund budget totals $6,884,272 as of Tuesday night.

The 2018 sewer fund budget totals $11,606,843 as of  Tuesday night.

Keep in mind, that includes several funds, such as street pipes, capital projects and more.

But unless there is a major change due to numbers not yet finalized, or council makes a big change (yeah, right!) what you're paying now for water and sewer is what you'll pay in 2018.

There was little else of interest except that utilities administrator Bob Plenderleith, a nice man who helped straighten out the numbers in the finance office, announced he is retiring in January.

He is very popular with the townships, which have grown fond of his accuracy, and I always found him extremely knowledgeable and helpful. Best of luck to you Bob.

Here are the Tweets.

2018 Rate Hikes Unlikely for Sewer, Water Users

There were plenty of interesting things that happened in the hour-long Pottstown Borough Authority meeting last night.

For example, we learned that street paving from water and sewer pipe replacement projects is continuing apace ....

We learned that despite a policy that calls for re-paving curb to curb, the borough authority projects do not always follow policy ...

And we learned that the $3.2 million project to replace the sludge dryer at the sewer treatment plant is starting to bog down before it starts ....

But let's face it folks, what you really want to know is that neither the water nor sewer budgets for 2018 submitted to the board call for any rate hikes.

The authority or borough council could always add to these budgets, but given the mid-year tax hike for water rates and the threat of a 23 percent property tax hike in the borough, I would put my money on no increase.

And with that, I know, many of you will stop reading.

Thanks for stopping by.

For those of you still with us, you might be interested to know that the start of construction on the Spring Valley Farms development at Bleim and Pleasantview roads will finally put into use a water tank built ten years ago but never used.

You might also be interested to know that the Pottstown water system may not be able to supply water to the massive Sanatoga Green commercial/residential development near the Limerick Outlets.

See what fun comes from reading ALL of the Digital Notebook every day? You're a better-informed citizen.

Get even more informed by reading the Tweets from the meeting and subscribing to The Mercury!

On the (Re-Paved) Road to Higher Water Rates

One could be forgiven for believing most matters of discussion at a water and sewer authority have to do with matters of water and sewage.

And to be sure, they do.

In that particular vein, the authority board unanimously (absent David Renn) officially approved the 14 percent hike in water and sewer rates that it tentatively approved in May.

The average household will pay about $35 more per year for water as the result of the vote.

The increase will generate additional revenues of $350,000 in 2017 and about $700,000 when the new fees have been in place for a full year by the end of 2018, according to Robert Plenderleith, the borough’s utilities administrator.

Much of that will go into the authority’s capital budget, which is being used according to a regularly updated five-year plan to repair and replace aging infrastructure in a water and sewer system now nearly 100 years old.

Repairs to that aging infrastructure -- and in particular the re-paving of the streets once that infrastructure is in place -- was of particular concern during Tuesday's authority board meeting.

Member Tom Carroll confirmed that when the authority re-paves a borough street after pipe work has been done, it is done "curb to curb."

Public Works Director Doug Yerger also said that when borough roads are re-paved from the liquid fuels fund simply because it needs it, it too is re-paved from curb to curb.

But if drivers of High Street were hoping for the same treatment, they will be disappointed. The $4 million water line re-placement that began last year and will continue on Aug. 2, when connections along Washington, Adams and Bailey streets will begin.

As engineer Tom Weld explained, because High Street is owned by the state, the curb-to-curb rule does not apply, so only the northern side of the street will be re-paved.

The final paving schedule for High Street will "hopefully" be finalized by the end of the month, according to Yerger.

As for keeping those streets clean, that's not happening any more.

Also under Carroll's questioning, Borougth (and authority) Manager Mark Flanders confirmed the last three years of annual street sweeping was paid through a $500,000 settlement with the Pottstown Landfill several years ago in exchange for treating the closed landfill's dwindling leachate run-off.

But after using some of the money to buy the trademark blue recycling containers, the rest went toward removing the 160 to 212 tons of grit off the streets each year.

"But that money is now exhausted," said Flanders. To pay for more street sweeping would require something else not being paid for.

Carroll offered the opinion that dirty streets keep "the kind of people we want to attract" from buying homes in the borough, and instead leads to residents who "don't care."

"I take pride in the upkeep of my house," said Carroll. "Seeing what's going on in other towns, if I could sell my house and get out of this town I would because I am tired of looking at the filth."

On that happy note, here are the Tweets from last night's borough authority meeting.

More Security, No Water/Sewer Rate Hike ... Yet

The Pottstown Borough Authority board put off discussion of a possible mid-year hike in water rates Tuesday night.

When the 2017 $6.56 million water and $9.39 million sewer budgets were adopted by the authority last October, they were adopted with the understanding that a mid-year rate hike would come in July.

At the time, hikes of 10 percent for water and 7 percent for sewer rates were expected to work out to an 8 percent hike for the average customer.

If enacted in full, the average quarterly water/sewer bill, for 7,500 gallons of water used, would increase from $165 to $178, Utilities Administrator Robert Plenderleith predicted last year.

But Plenderleith was not at Tuesday's meeting and although the matter was listed on the agenda, it was removed for discussion once the meeting began.

What the authority board did decide was to award a bid for new security measures at both the water and sewer treatment plans for $920,000 to the Silas Bolef company of Norristown.

The bid, which was the lowest, was 5 percent higher than estimates.

The company will install electronic gates that must be opened with a key card, as well as cameras and new communications wiring for new phone systems at both plants.

The access cards will allow for septic companies to unload their trucks at the plant 24 hours a day, which means more revenue for the wastewater treatment plan operation, said engineer Tom Weld.

In other significant news, the authority also made a final recommendation to borough council to update the plumbing requirements in the borough to more closely reflect the modern standards used in surrounding townships.

Championed by Authority Vice Chairman Aram Ecker, the changes are meant to make Pottstown "more business friendly," said member David Renn.

For other items from the meeting, enjoy the cornucopia of Tweets below.

$3.7 Million Sludge Dryer Replacement Approved

Photos by Evan Brandt

The Pottstown Borough Authority decided Tuesday night to replace its current 10-year-old sludge dryer with this new, more efficient system.

The Pottstown Borough Authority Tuesday night voted unanimously to move forward with a $3.7 million project to replace the maintenance-plagued dryer at the sewer treatment plant and replace it with a new type of dryer.

The new system, a pressure differential dryer, has fewer moving parts and so is easier to maintain, is more energy efficient and will allow the plant to process 20 percent more sludge than it currently does, Authority Engineer Tom Weld told the board members before the vote.

W. Tid Griffin, president and CEO of Owensboro,
Ken.-based Gryphon Environmental LLC,
holds two jars of processed sludge. In his right
hand is the powder produced by the current sludge
dryer at the Pottstown Wastewater Treatment
Facility. In his left are the pellets left over from
his pressure differential dryer, which cuts down
on odor and is preferred by farmers.

The annual operational savings of nearly $700,000 over the current system means it will pay for itself within six years, he said.

"The thing practically pays for itself, it's really a no brainer," Utilities
Administrator Robert Plenderleith said as the presentation wrapped up.

The current dryer system, manufactured by Komline Sanderson, was purchased in 2007 for $6.7 million and was one of only three options on the market at the time, said Weld.

Since it was installed it has allowed the plant to produce a high-quality end product that can be used by farmers as fertilizer, or as fill. Most importantly, it does not have to buried in a landfill, a proposition that cost millions.

But the plant has been plagued with maintenance problems, forcing it to be shut down for days, meaning the plant's end-product had to be landfilled during the colder months when the dryer was off-line.

Since 2008, maintenance costs have added up to more than $2.5 million, in addition to another $5 million in hauling costs and the addition natural gas costs of $1.7 million, said Weld.

The current dryer building at the Pottstown Sewer Plant

will have to be expanded to accommodate the Gryphon dryer.

According to the average over the last three years, keeping the current dryer would mean an additional $270,000 a year in maintenance costs, compared to Gryphon's estimated $70,000 a year.

With maintenance estimates adding up to another $4.2 million by 2020 for the current system, Weld said it was time to explore other options.

The borough team looked at five other types of sludge dryers and settled on the one manufactured by Gryphon for the reasons stated above.

Overall, the Gryphon system is estimated to save the authority about $670,000 a year, said Weld. The authority also approved a motion to begin seeking the necessary state permits as well as a tentative timeline which has the system coming on-line in October of 2018.

The current borough dryer produces dust, seen on the left,

as an end product. The Gryphon product is pellets, right.

That does not include the increased marketability of the end product which, unlike the dust currently produced, comes in pellet form, which farmers prefer because it is easier to distribute and cuts down on odors. As an added bonus, the new system is also expected to cut down on odor complaints at the sewer plant, said Utilities Manager Brent Wagner.

In addition to taking out the old dryer, the current building must be expanded to accommodate the Gryphon system and the work timed so that when the current dryer is off-line and being disassembled, the class B product the plant produces without the dryer can be land-applied as fertilizer, which is much cheaper than sending it to a landfill.

Griffin explains how his system works during

Tuesday night's Borough Authority Meeting

The longer timeline also allows the three townships which also send their sewage to the plant -- Lower Pottsgrove, Upper Pottsgrove and West Pottsgrove -- time to plan to pay their share.

According to a spreadsheet put together by the authority staff, Pottstown ratepayers will pay 59.67 percent of the total cost or $2.2 million.

Lower Pottsgrove, the next largest user, would pay 26.28 percent or $975,000. West Pottsgrove would cover 10.26 percent of the cost or about $380,000 and Upper Pottsgrove just 3.8 percent, or about $140,000.

The approval was not the only thing that happened at the meeting last night. Here are the Tweets about the rest.