30,000 gallons of raw sewage to the environment

The ongoing saga of the Pratt, West Virginia Public Service District...........the PSD requested and received emergency money from the Kanawha County Commission (the County Commission!!) to install back-up generators so that pumps would not fail during a power outage.

They got the money, got the generators but failed to hook them up. The result? 30,000 gallons of raw sewage spilled.

Wasn't the argument FOR a PSD and centralized treatment system is that the facilities and infrastructure would be properly managed and maintained by professionals?

Decentralized is the solution. Less infrastructure, less capital, less outages, more flexiblity and fewer and MUCH smaller spills.
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Carper goes after Pratt over raw-sewage release
By Rusty Marks
Staff writer
Advertiser

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper has filed a formal complaint with the state Department of Environmental Protection after Pratt town officials allowed 30,000 gallons of raw sewage to escape during last month's snowstorm.

A power outage during a massive snowstorm the week before Christmas led to a sewer pump backup in Pratt. According to recently hired Pratt sewer operator Carl King, about 30,000 gallons of raw sewage was released into the environment over a 19-hour period.

Pratt has repeatedly been in violation of DEP regulations, and frequently releases raw sewage into the environment during periods of heavy rains or when there is a power failure. County officials bought the town of Pratt two emergency generators about two years ago to help solve the problem, but the generators have never been hooked up.

In a memorandum sent to county officials last week, King said the generators have not been hooked up because the wrong transfer switches had been ordered.

On Monday, Carper filed a formal complaint against the town sewer system. "I suspect the discharge amount admitted to is grossly underestimated, although outrageous," Carper said.

Richard Hackney, a DEP enforcement inspector, said Monday that DEP had received the complaint and would conduct an investigation of Pratt's sewer system. He could not say whether DEP would take any action against the town.

Pratt Mayor Gary Fields, who took office in July, conceded that the generators should have been installed a long time ago. But he said raw sewage would have been released during the snowstorm even if the generators had been in place because of an electrical problem in a sewer plant control panel.

Fields said Monday the control panel is being repaired. He said sewer officials are ordering the correct switches for the generators, which he hopes to have up and running within a month.