Lansdale Studying Fixes to Sewer Pump Station at Whites Road Park

Dan Sokil | The Reporter•

Lettering can be seen on the side of the main office building at Lansdale’s wastewater treatment plant.

It’s a frequently asked question, without an easy answer.

Council members heard an update, and about some possible fixes, to recent odors coming from Lansdale’s wastewater treatment plant.

"There was some public comment, and I brought up something as well, in relation to some chatter that we heard on social media, regarding some smells in the west ward,” said public works committee chairman BJ Breish.

Lansdale’s sewer plant has been an ongoing topic of discussion in recent years, as the plant was constructed in the late 1970s and has undergone numerous upgrades and capacity increases since.

In late 2012 the borough finished construction of a pipeline connection between Merck facilities in Upper Gwynedd and the plant on Ninth Street, and once the Merck connection was done, council commissioned a study of the plant’s capacity and operations during high flow events like large rain storms.

In 2013 that study recommended a series of long-term upgrades to increase the plant’s capacity, including increasing the size of pipeline connections and converting storage tanks into processing areas to increase the plant’s capacity by roughly two million gallons per day beyond the 4.5 million gallons per day it has processed since 1996.

Those capacity upgrades were bid out in 2014, contracts awarded at the end of that year, and finished in 2016, just after council voted to raise sewer rates in 2015. Those rates were held level until this year, as staff made the case this summer for more funding to tackle sewer treatment equipment replacement and upgrades, some to fix equipment original to the 1970s, and in June council approved the town’s first sewer rate increase since 2015, followed in July by a vote ahead for sewer aeration upgrades meant to fix failing underground pipes and decrease the plant’s energy use.

September brought the start of the social media snark: a series of comments on the "Citizens for the Revitalization of Lansdale” Facebook group complaining about stronger-than-usual sewer smells, and speculating about possible causes.

The borough announced in June that work on a new UV disinfection system meant to reduce chemical costs had begun and could cause odors, and in early September the borough noted they were investigating the cause of smells from a sewer pump station on Whites Road. Council’s public works committee took up talks on the topic on Oct. 4, with Breish and plant Superintendent Greg Rapp saying the smells were caused by a combination of weather and work there.

"High humidity combined with low, or no air movement will encompass and hold odors. In these weather conditions odors can travel an extended distance and linger for an extended period before dispensing,” Rapp said.

"We have equipment and material on order to fabricate a system to dispense a chemical that will treat odors. We anticipate having this system operational soon, within the next few weeks,” he said.

Plant staff have already begun adding potassium permanganate to their influent streams to try to mitigate odors, and as of early October "we believe this has already helped in the reduction of the WWTP odors,” Rapp said.

Breish added that staff have looked into the costs for fixes both short- and long-term, and after talks with a neighboring municipality, were able to identify a chemical process that could cost as high as six figures to solve the problem permanently, or "a misting system, that you can purchase on Amazon, that appears to be helping to solve the problem temporarily.”

"It doesn’t fix the problem, but it does reduce the smells, as we continue to try to work on that hydrogen sulfide issue, at the Whites Road pumping station,” he said.

In their October meeting, the public works committee also voted ahead a change order for recent chemical storage upgrades, and continued talks on the town’s sewer rates and new connection fees, and whether to approve a second rate hike to follow the increase that took effect in September. Sewer plant staff have identified work needed at another pump station, stream bank restoration work, and other infrastructure projects on their to-do list for 2024, Breish said, and heard how the UV disinfection system could reduce the plant’s operating and chemical purchase costs once it comes online.

For those interested in a closer look at the plant, tours are offered to groups from local educational institutions, and some schools visit the plant on an annual basis, according to Rapp. Once the UV system goes online in mid-2024, plant staff plan to host a tour of the treatment plant for a regional association of plant operators, and details on the plant’s equipment, its safety awards, the lab testing and sampling done at the plant, and its treatment processes are available on the borough’s website.

Lansdale’s borough council next meets at 7 p.m. on Oct. 18 and the public works committee next meets at 6:30 p.m. on Nov, 1, both at the borough municipal building, 1 Vine Street. For more information visit www.Lansdale.org.

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