Stormwater fee-funded catch basin project topic of WVSA video

Attempting to help stormwater fee payers visualize work they are funding, the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority has posted a YouTube video of a recent catch basin replacement.

The video captures the extent of work involved in repairing important drainage infrastructure, said authority public relations/regulatory liaison Donna Gillis.

“It’s essential for us to showcase the projects that are being funded by the stormwater fee. We want to continue showing that this program is making a difference in our communities,” Gillis said.

At least three deteriorated catch basins will be replaced annually in each of the 31 municipalities in the authority’s regional stormwater program, said authority stormwater division manager Jeff Colella.

The program brings municipalities in compliance with a federal pollution reduction mandate through projects and work funded by a property owner stormwater fee based on non-absorbent impervious area.

There are 13,500 catch basins in the 31 municipalities, and many are decades old and deteriorated, Colella said.

Larger municipalities with a higher count of stormwater fee payers will receive more than three annual catch basin replacements, possibly as many as 10 if weather permits, Colella said.

The authority is leaving it up to municipal officials to decide which basins are replaced because they are more familiar with the most urgent problems, such as water pooling in an area due to a basin collapse, he said.

“We’re working with the towns to get the worst basins fixed,” Colella said.

Video

Accessible through the YouTube button at wvsa.org, the two-minute video focuses on a basin on Miller Street in West Pittston that was replaced last month.

The basin was overgrown, clogged and starting to collapse.

After using a pave cutter to carve out the work area, authority crews use a backhoe to remove the basin and other material to uncover the drainage outlet below.

Using heavy equipment, a new concrete storm basin is lowered into the hole and connected to a new PVC drainage pipe to replace the old one that is broken. The workers add a concrete riser on top to hold the grate and keep it level with the roadway, filling spaces around the basin with modified rock covered with compacted pavement.

A medallion is added reminding the public not to pour anything into the drain to help keep pollutants out of waterways.

In 2019, the authority replaced 117 basins and cleaned debris out of another 754, the video said.

Colella said the fee covers the entire cost of basin replacements, estimating municipalities would have to pay at least $2,500 for each if they had to rely on a private contractor.

Deteriorating basins often remain unaddressed because municipalities lack the manpower or funding to replace them, he said.

It will take many years to reach the point that all catch basins are fully functioning and holding minimal quantities of sediment that can be sucked up through regular cleaning, he said.

“You have to start at some point because these things are being ignored in general,” Colella said.

Authority officials have cautioned the fee-funded project won’t extend to a broader problem in which some antiquated, underground municipal stormwater collection systems are too small to handle overwhelming quantities of rain, causing street flooding.

Basin cleaning

The authority also relies on recommendations from municipalities and sometimes property owners on which basins need cleaning.

Scales have been added to vacuum vehicles to ensure removed sediment is quantified and credited as pollution reduction for the federal mandate, Colella said. The mandate sets targets to lower sediment, nitrogen and phosphorus in the Susquehanna River and Chesapeake Bay Watershed over five years, officials said.

Rain gardens, stormwater parks and other projects also are planned as part of the regional program.