Town Plans Generator For Sewage

By Keith Croes, Special to The Inquirer

Posted: July 14, 1987

Washington Township sewer authority members have vowed to buy a new generator for the Altair Drive sewage-treatment plant after a power outage last week, which resulted in raw sewage being pumped into nearby Kandle Lake.

Until the new generator is purchased, they have put work crews on round- the-clock call because emergency power must be switched on manually.

For about a half-hour during a rainstorm and power outage on Thursday, the Altair Drive pump station spilled sewage into the watershed for Kandle Lake, the centerpiece of Jay Kandle's 87-acre family-owned swim club and campground. That was the time it took for workers to manually switch on the emergency generator.

Bacteria levels over the recent hot weekend forced the Gloucester County Health Department to prohibit swimming in the lake, beaching hundreds of members and campers.

The water has gradually improved since Thursday, Kandle said, and the county might reopen the lake to swimming today, said Kandle, who attended the sewer authority meeting last night.

It is the third time in recent years that Washington Township sewage has chased swimmers out of Kandle Lake, but it is the first time that the problem stemmed from the lack of an automatic switchover to emergency power at the station.

"There is a portable generator at the Altair Drive pump station," said sewer superintendent Paul DeCosta, "and it must be switched on manually."

The search starts today for a new emergency generator with automatic switchover, authority members said.

"We'll get a new generator," said authority Chairman Val Orsimarsi, "if I have to put it in myself."