WEIRTON - Utilities Director Butch Mastrantoni and his staff recently made a disturbing discovery - untreated sewage from about 1,000 structures in Weirton has been flowing into the Ohio River for more than 50 years.
And with city customers already facing a proposed increase to sewer rates, the solution to the problem could eventually cost the Weirton Sanitary Board millions of dollars to fix, Mastrantoni told members Wednesday.
Rather than flowing to the Fifth Street station and from there to the city's sanitary plant for treatment, 7-8 percent of the city's sewage is being diverted into the river through the northernmost of ArcelorMittal Weirton's three outfalls into the Ohio River, said Mastrantoni. The reason for the diversion is a long-forgotten structure built in 1957 - what Mastrantoni called a "mixing chamber" - that combines surface runoff and sanitary flow and diverts the mixture to the mill outfall.
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(Photo by Ian Hicks)
Weirton Sanitary Board members Mayor Mark Harris, left, and Chuck Wright listen during a Wednesday meeting.
Mastrantoni believes the chamber originally was intended to divert sewage flow around the construction site of one of the former Weirton Steel Corp.'s blast furnaces. He noted the structure predates the sanitary plant itself and was built during a time when there was significantly less concern over what was flowing into area waterways.
"That may have been a totally acceptable method of doing business back then," said Mastrantoni.
Mastrantoni said he first met with officials at ArcelorMittal, which now owns Weirton's steelmaking facilities, on the matter last month. Because the outfalls are only supposed to handle surface runoff, ArcelorMittal is not required to treat the flow - but it must monitor the levels of fecal matter present.
According to Mastrantoni, recent tests revealed the same level of such material in the approximately 10 million gallons that flow through the outfall daily as was present years ago when activity at the mill was higher and about 40 million gallons of water flowed through daily.
Through dye testing, Mastrantoni and his staff found that surface runoff collected at 10 different points was actually flowing to the ArcelorMittal outfall instead of to the sanitary plant.
A subsequent search of archived blueprints dating back to the early 20th century revealed the plans for the mixing chamber constructed in 1957.
Board members Mayor Mark Harris and Chuck Wright voted to authorize Mastrantoni to have Thrasher Engineering Inc. of Charleston begin conducting studies and developing an action plan. Board member Geary Bullock was not present at the meeting.
Harris asked Mastrantoni for an estimate on what correcting the issue ultimately would cost the board. Mastrantoni said without an engineer's report, any numbers he gave would be "grab out of the air" figures. But he told them at best, a solution likely would cost more than $1 million, with that figure rising to $5 million or $6 million in a worst-case scenario.
City Council on Friday is scheduled to vote on a proposed sewer rate increase during a 2 p.m. special meeting. The ordinance, which must pass two readings including a public hearing before enactment, calls for a $2.70 increase in each customer's flat monthly charge, with the current rate of $2.95 per 1,000 gallons of wastewater treated remaining unchanged.
Mastrantoni said the increase is a "bare bones" measure that will do nothing more than ensure the sanitary board remains in compliance with its bondholders regarding debt service coverage. It will not provide for capital improvements or unforseen circumstances such as the sewage flow diversion problem.
"So we're going to be coming back and asking for a lot more money to get this fixed," Harris said.
Mastrantoni noted that a project with the scope of this one likely will take several months just to get out of the study and design phase. He estimated it would be between one and two years "before you see a shovel in the ground."