The deadly flood waters that brought catastrophic flooding to the eastern half of Pennsylvania are also exposing residents to raw sewage and even ammonia authorities say.
“A total of ten water and sewage treatment plants have failed, which means the water in the streets is toxic. Unless you are being rescued, please keep out of the water,’’ Gov. Tom Corbett said in a press release Thursday.
On Friday afternoon, the governor’s press office told NBC Philadelphia that 26 sewage treatment plants have been affected statewide. Of those, 14 have been shut down, including a plant in Womelsdorf near Reading.
The Berks County sewage treatment plant in Heidelberg Township was swamped under several feet of water from the swollen Tulpehocken Creek, reports the Reading Eagle.
The plant was shut down early Wednesday morning, which means raw sewage was dumped into the creek.
After the Tulpehocken Creek subsides, crews will pump water from the facility, but until then “There’s not a damn thing we can do,” Womelsdorf borough council President Vince Balistrieri told the Reading Eagle.
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This is the second sewage situation the Reading area has dealt with in a week.
A 42-inch sewer main in Reading sprang a leak after Hurricane Irene hit, dumping 16.2 million gallons of raw sewage into the Schuylkill River (though DEP officals said the city dumped 72 million gallons into the river).
To state the obvious, the Schuylkill River is upstream to Philadelphia.
In addition to raw sewage threats, one town has to deal with ammonia. A fire chief in Bloomsburg told the Associated Press that the area has to deal with an ammonia leak at a food manufacturer.
Bloomsberg is experiencing its worst flooding in a century along the Susquehanna River.
The Susquehanna crested Thursday evening about 2 feet below the 41-foot levees protecting communities near Wilkes-Barre. But other nearby communities not protected by the levees were struck by disastrous flooding.
