Historic Town in Pennsylvania Fined for Sewage Discharges
Camp Hill Borough, a historic town in Cumberland County Pennsylvania has been fined $140,000 by the Department of Environmental Protection for its unauthorized and unreported sewage discharges over the past two years.
The Pennsylvania DEP has fined Camp Hill Borough $140,000 for 97 sewage discharge violations, in which sewage was drained into systems that lead to the Conodoguinet and Yellow Breeches creeks. In the order describing the fine, it was also mentioned that similar discharges took place back in 2008, but no penalty has been given for those violations yet.
In a Jan. 3, 2013 inspection, the DEP found that a Camp Hill pumping station was shut down on 53 different occasions due to high flows and power outages, which caused the sewage to be released into the Conodoguinet Creek. The inspection also discovered raw sewage was pumped into the Yellow Breeches Creek on 34 separate days in 2011. Of these discharges, none were reported to the DEP.
According to Lynn Langer, South-central regional director, “This penalty reflects the seriousness of the violations committed by Camp Hill Borough. The continued discharge of sewage into Pennsylvania’s waterways will not be tolerated, and specific corrective measures will be taken by Camp Hill to comply with our environmental protection laws.”
In order to correct their violations, Camp Hill will have to pay necessary fines, inspect pumps and pipes each day, install new water flow alarms, begin a high-flow management system, and install a new pump station by November of this year.