LAWRENCEVILLE, Pa. — A Pennsylvania borough’s water department received several violation notices after state inspectors found a number of issues, including a bullet hole in a water tank that had been plugged using a tree branch.
In an inspection report dated Aug. 25, an inspector for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection said, “A bullet hole in the finished water storage tank was plugged using a tree branch (stick) and an unknown epoxy or resin-like material, neither of which are NSF-certified materials.” Photos accompanying the report show the branch sticking out of the side of the water tank.
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In a violation notice delivered to Lawrenceville Borough’s water department, the DEP said that the agency was first notified about a temporary plug being used for the water tank because of a bullet hole in late June 2022, WETM reported.
In the inspection report, the DEP said that it reached out for information about the method and materials used to repair the water tank on June 30 and July 14, but that it received no response.
Lawrenceville Council President Gordon Chilson told WETM that he was unaware of the violation notice.
The inspection by the DEP also found that there was no documentation of water calibrations or chlorine analysis for the last year. The DEP also noted, “The water system does not currently have an operator appropriately certified” after the prior operator resigned on May 20, 2022. Under the law, a certified operator was required to be named within 14 days. The DEP said that an operator who was not fully certified was interviewed, but declined the position. The report said that as of June 30, the system “has not retained an appropriately certified operator and has been operating their water system without a certified operator for over a month.”
DEP Inspection Report by National Content Desk on Scribd
In a court order dated Aug. 8, the borough was given until Sept. 8 to find and hire a licensed operator, WETM reported.
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