I am happy to report that as of Thursday 28 March the permit applications to begin design of a new sewer system at the National Headquarters were completed and returned to the engineering firm working on the project. They assure me that the applications will be filed with the DEP (that is the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection for those of you who reside outside PA).
The review process will take a few months, but once completed, we will be able to design a new sewer plant for your property in Strasburg. This is a major step forward and makes it possible to have a working sewer system in place by the beginning of 2010.
Yes, I said 2010. That seems hard to believe but it is not that far away. What is more difficult to believe that we have been picking away at this problem since August of 2000.
It is a long story but I can say with certainty that every solution that was proposed was investigated to the fullest degree possible. The downfall of almost every on site solution is the lack of space to put a processing structure that can handle possible output of the system. Access to public and private systems was found to be too expensive or too fraught with red tape requiring years and years of negotiation, legal wrangles, court cases and money.
If you live outside Pennsylvania you do not have an appreciation for local conditions that influence decisions on land use and waste water management. It has been a long haul but we are now really making progress.
In the Strasburg area, land use (read that as development such as homes, businesses and industries) is a critical issue. As critical is the flow of water and its contents into the Chesapeake Bay. Here is a quick geography lesson.
All of rivers in Pennsylvania except for those in the southeast and southwest corners flow into the Susquehanna River and that flows into the Chesapeake Bay. Technically the Chesapeake is not a bay, it is an estuary but who cares about that? What really has people up in arms is all the run-off in the water the Susquehanna delivers to the Bay. It contains farm chemicals, dirt, waste and a lot of other stuff that you do not need a microscope to find. None of it is good for what tries to live in the Bay.
Enter Lancaster and York counties. As they are primarily agricultural counties (both are considered farming powerhouses in PA), they were identified by the feds as major contributors to the pollutants entering the Chesapeake Bay. As a result increasingly restrictive regulations are being enacted to curtail some of this pollution. Unfortunately, some of them apply to TCA and hence the long drawn out process of inspection and approval.
At this point I can only ask that you continue to show the patience with the situation you have shown over the past years. We really are moving and it will be finished sooner than you think.
