Failing private wastewater treatment prompts $10.8M Donegal Township sewage project

Failing private sewage systems have led to excess levels of ammonia and fecal coliform bacteria in Donegal Township’s Minnow Run.

To help clean up that stream, whose waters ultimately wind up in Indian Creek and the Youghiogheny River, the township is preparing to construct its first-ever public sewage system.

Tom Stull, chairman of the township supervisors, hopes construction of the $10.8 million system could begin by spring 2026.

It is designed to collect and treat wastewater from about 25 commercial and residential customers along the Route 31 corridor near the Pennsylvania Turnpike interchange at Donegal.

“It will extend from the turnpike interchange east to the Holiday Inn Express and the Laurel Highlands Campland,” Stull said. “It will help lessen the environmental impact on Indian Creek.

“There are only seven or eight households and the rest are businesses.”

The township sewage system will take the place of private treatment systems.

“This is a first for us,” Stull said. “We’re very rural up here. There have always been individual on-lot systems.”

One of the intended commercial customers is the Campland, which has camping sites for recreational vehicles as well as a section with manufactured homes for sale.

Its failing private sewage system led to the inclusion of its owner, Lauderdale Laurel Highlands, along with the township, in a 2022 consent order and agreement with the state Department of Environmental Protection that resulted in the township sewage project.

Efforts to reach Campland and Lauderdale representatives were unsuccessful.

The consent order noted that the private Campland sewage treatment plant was not capable of meeting effluent limitations for ammonia.

According to data from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Campland plant exceeded nitrogen and ammonia effluent limits by anywhere from 640% to 2,155%, based on quarterly reporting of monthly samples from 2021 through 2024.

“It’s a nutrient that’s supposed to be at a certain level,” said Eric Harder, Youghiogheny Riverkeeper for the Mountain Watershed Association. “When you get excessive nutrients, it throws off the balance of a stream,” potentially leading to excess growth of algae.

“That impacts the amount of habitat for macroinvertebrates and the feeding area for fish,” he said.

The watershed group’s own water quality monitoring at another location on Minnow Run on various dates last year revealed fecal coliform levels ranging from about 166 to 1,119 per 100 milliliters of water.

Harder noted Pennsylvania has set a permit limit for a discharge into a stream of 200 fecal coliforms per 100 milliliters of sample water collected.

“Any reading over 200 is a concern for human health,” he said. “There is a statistic that 33 out of 1,000 people who make contact with a waterway with fecal coliform levels over 200 mpn will suffer some sort of bacteria-related illness, whether that is an infection of the skin, stomach bug, or worse.”

Mpn refers to the “most probable number,” resulting from a statistical method used to estimate the viable numbers of bacteria in a sample.

Harder expressed concern that the new public sewage plant night not have adequate capacity to handle future development along Route 31.

Though not citing specifics, officials have said the plant was designed with additional growth taken into account.

State Rep. Leslie Rossi of Unity said it “will not only strengthen the infrastructure for today’s residents, but also set the foundation for sustainable growth in the community for years to come.”

Project details

The project includes the construction of a plant capable of treating 110,000 gallons of wastewater per day, about 6,600 feet of sewer collection lines, manholes, 3,200 feet of waterline and a 1,900-foot gravel access road. The treatment plant will include an ultraviolet disinfection process and a sludge belt filter press.

The sewage project got a recent boost with the announcement of major funding through the state PennVEST program, including a $7 million grant and a $1.8 million low-interest loan.

The balance of project costs are to be covered by federal pandemic recovery funding, channeled through Westmoreland County, and additional state funding from gaming revenue and the H20 PA-Water Supply, Sanitary Sewer and Storm Water Projects Program.

“It’s a very expensive proposition to get into a sewage plant,” Stull said. “The majority of it will be covered by grants.

“We’ve worked hand-in-hand with our representatives and senators. They guided us through a lot of the issues.”

The EADS Group, the township’s engineering consultant, has played a key role in designing the project.