COUPON — For 40 years, untreated sewage has pooled on the land around Wib Swope’s home.
Things have gotten so bad in recent years that, when his wife, Anna, was mowing their 5-acre parcel last summer, she sank up to her knees in human waste.
“We are the sewage system,” she said of the 2 acres her family can no longer use because of contamination. “Something has to be done.”
Relief could finally be on the horizon. A study outlined for residents Wednesday shows the most feasible option is building 8,100 feet – about a mile and a half – of collection line and a 30,000-gallon-per-day treatment plant.
The Swopes, Pete Eichenlaub and others living in the lower section of Coupon are paying a high price as an increasing number of the 80-plus on-lot septic systems fail.
The sewage problem has been around for years, caused by the failing on-lot systems. It became a state issue in 2003 when the state Department of Environmental Protection paid a visit.
“The village as a whole they determined was bad. There was sewage in the ditches, and DEP told Gallitzin Township they had to do something,” said Josh James, of Gwin, Dobson and Foreman engineers of Altoona, which completed the study.
The $1.5 million project cost puts monthly residential rates between $50 and $90.
Two funding sources – the state’s PennVEST fund and the federal Rural Utility Services – will be considered, James said, as officials look to keep rates down.
Another option all but ruled out is piping the sewage four miles north for treatment in Ashville.
That would require improvements to that town’s plant.
Potential treatment plant sites are east of Coupon or southeast in Logan Township, requiring a land purchase in Blair County, James said.
Some of the 50 residents at the meeting expressed hope the system could be extended outside of Coupon, an expansion that would be costly, officials said.
The next step is township adoption of the plan and the search for money.
Design could be completed by January with construction in August 2009 and an operational system by July 2010.
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