CONNOQUENESSING TWP — The township has less than 10 days to submit an updated sewage plan schedule to the state Department of Environmental Protection after the agency found it was in violation of the Pennsylvania Sewage Facilities Act.

The township received a letter from the DEP June 2 which said the township’s failure to implement public sewage according to its approved plan has led to the pollution of public waters, and is a statutory nuisance.

The township supervisors reviewed the letter at a meeting Wednesday, June 7, which supervisor chairman Terry Steinheiser said caught the board off guard when it arrived the previous day.

“It was shocking,” Steinheiser said. “They are tired of us kicking the can down the road.”

According to the DEP’s letter, the agency approved the township’s plan in March 2019, which planned for construction to begin on a selected sewer design by August 2022. The township had table a previous plan it had put together last August due to concerns over the cost of the project. The Pennsylvania Sewage Facilities Act of 1966 requires a municipality to develop, adopt and implement comprehensive plans that provide for the sewage disposal needs of its area.

If the township doesn’t respond to the DEP’s notice 15 days after receiving it, the DEP could take action, according to the letter.

Ken Dambaugh, a member of the township sewer authority, said the authority has built up a good rapport with the letter’s sender, Tomisa Kiskadden, sewage planning supervisor of the Clean Water Program.

Dambaugh also said the engineers for the sewer authority are making “awesome progress” on updating the township’s sewage plan.

“Certainly we’re going to have to work on some of this before our next meeting ... We obviously need to respond, but 15 days is unreasonable,” he said. “(The engineers) have visited the plant recently, so there is some really on-the-ground pencil to paper happening, so it’s going to be really important we get that back to the DEP.”

Township solicitor Andrew Menchyk said the township plans to reply to the letter within the 15-day period.

“We’re going to need a lot of input from the sewer authority to get this response,” Menchyk said.