Sewage

A Coatesville-area man serving probation for 2008 wastewater-treatment violations in Chester County faces new charges related to his operation of a Delaware County sewage plant, the state Attorney General's Office said Monday. A news release identified him as Thomas M. Horrex, 57, of East Fallowfield Township. Horrex is the owner of TMH Environmental Services Inc. and has run the Fox Valley Community Services Sewage Treatment Plant in Concord Township since 2010, the release said.

A worker at a Delaware County sewage treatment plant has been charged with falsifying environmental reports, the Attorney General's Office announced Tuesday. Michael Bostic, 43, of Townsend, Del., a supervisor at the Fox Valley Sewage Treatment Plant in Concord Township, was charged with tampering with public records, falsification to authorities, and unlawful conduct. He was arraigned and released on bail. According to the Attorney General's Office on two occasions in 2010, Bostic allegedly failed to perform the environmental tests or collect samples as required by law. A grand jury found that he submitted false test results to the Department of Environmental Protection.

A Delaware County sewage plant worker has been charged with falsifying environmental reports. Michael Bostic, 43, of Townsend, Del, and a supervisor at the Fox Valley Sewage Treatment Plant in Concord Township, was charged with tampering with public records, falsification to authorities and unlawful conduct, the Attorney General's office announced Tuesday. He was arraigned and released on $25,000 unsecured bail. According to the attorney general's office on two occasions in 2010, Bostic allegedly failed to perform environmental tests or collect samples as required by law. A grand jury found that he submitted false test results to the Department of Environmental Protection.

Lately, another day means another call from Reading announcing a dump of millions of gallons of raw sewage into Pottstown's water supply. "This is the fifth time in three weeks," Pottstown Borough Manager Jason Bobst said Thursday. "This is getting old. " In late August, Hurricane Irene rent a leak in a 60-year-old, 42-inch sewer main in the Berks County city. Since then, officials there have struggled to patch a series of newly erupting cracks and stop a cycle that has forced them to divert the pipe's contents into the Schuylkill over and over again to relieve pressure.

Millions of gallons of raw sewage spilled into the Schuylkill from a sewer main break in Reading this week, with a final estimate of the spill to be determined as soon as next week. But the risk for those whose downriver public-utility systems draw directly from the waterway has passed, state environmental regulators said Friday. "I was out doing fecal counts on the river today," said Krissy Pennypacker, laboratory supervisor for the Pottstown water system. "They've dropped off tremendously in the last couple of days.

Final estimates on exactly how many millions of gallons of raw sewage spilled into the Schuylkill from a water main break in Reading could be determined as soon as next week. But the risk period for those whose downriver public water systems that draw directly from the waterway has passed, state environmental regulators said Friday. "I was out doing fecal counts on the river today," said Krissy Pennypacker, laboratory supervisor for the Pottstown water system. "They've dropped off tremendously in the last couple of days.

FORT WORTH, Texas - In parched West Texas, it's often easier to drill for oil than to find new sources of water. So after years of diminishing water supplies made even worse by the second-most severe drought in state history, some communities are resorting to a plan that might have seemed absurd a generation ago: turning sewage into drinking water. Construction recently began on a $13 million water-reclamation plant believed to be the first in Texas. Officials have worked to dispel any fears that people will be drinking their neighbors' urine, promising that the system will yield clean, safe water.

THE PROBLEM: Juanita Hatton is having trouble with her sewer. Big trouble. Water is coming up through her bathtub drain rather than going down it, and human waste is seeping up from the ground and mixing with the fallen leaves in her back yard, causing a smell so bad that it's making her sick. And Hatton isn't the only one on her West Philadelphia block with sewer problems. The almost-70-year-old block captain reports that at least six other residents of the 3900 block of Poplar Street have had water and sewer problems over the last month, from low water pressure to sewage backups.

YORK, Pa. - The latest substance from the York sewage treatment plant isn't stinky sludge or bubbly wastewater. It's little white pellets, about the size of small seeds. And they promise not only environmental benefit but real money. The pellets are fertilizer, and a formulation that incorporates them, produced by an Allentown company, is being tested at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square. The pellets are also being touted as a way for the plant to meet stricter environmental limits for discharge into nearby Codorus Creek - and ultimately, the Chesapeake Bay, which suffers from an excess of nutrients.