As Allentown prepares to unveil it's new destination playground, Lehigh Parkway near the Robin Hood Bridge is covered in feces, tampons and toilet paper. The LCA manhole cover allowed an enormous amount of raw sewage to escape into the park and Little Lehigh Creek, just upstream of our water plant intake. Although Pawlowski is preparing for a major news conference for the playground, he should be in the park right now raising hell about this ecological disaster.
One can smell the sewage as soon as you enter the park off of 15th street.
Hopefully this disaster will prompt Allentown into insisting that the LCA curtail it's expansion, until which time this reoccurring problem is properly addressed.
UPDATE: The manhole cover just west of Robin Hood Bridge, was propelled off during the storm from the pressure in the pipe, projecting the sewage into the park and creek.
MM:
ReplyDeleteThank you for bringing this to our attention. It needs to be addressed. Now.
Ironically though it is a metaphor for so much of what is happening in this city. Plug it up real pretty in one spot and the s**t just comes up somewhere else.
The infrastructure of the city is failing along with its finances. If we can not take care of the basics the frills are just a waste of time and money.
LCA sewage capacity has been overloaded since 1984. They don't care that they dump sewage in our park and water intakes. Their spokesperson defended the practice saying something along the lines of "sewage is not so bad". So they feel justified in growing beyond all availible resources.
ReplyDeleteLCA exists to grow lca, period! We need to gut their top management, gut the old directors, and get some serve the community type people in rather than the we rule and we can do anything we want type people.
Quite nasty. Thank you for calling attention to this. Is this legal for them to allow to continue?
ReplyDeleteMM you are aware the PaDEP ordered the LCA to resolve this? They're dragging their heels for a number of reasons.
ReplyDeleteOne is that homeowners in Western Lehigh County are screaming 'property rights' when the LCA wants to come into their basements to make sure homeowners aren't sump pumping their flooded basements into the floor or laundry drains (the sewer system) when it rains. The LCA is also checking into those down spouts that drain rain gutters into underground waste lines. There are currently tons of older homes in Allentown that do!. I've disconnected mine and re-channeled them both onto the lawn.
What you have witnessed in the 'Robin Hood' area is much like what M. Donovan has further witnessed upstream. See "A Walk In The Park" on M. Donovan's blog.
But I never complain w/o offering a solution. Here's how we can expedite LCA's inspection program since they can't find where this is coming from.
Allentown city workers start out at the very most border limits of Allentown with welding units. Plug every one of the manhole covers and weld them water tight so no water can overflow from them. When it rains and all this s**t starts overloading the lines, they will back up into wherever it's coming from. Think of it like your toilet when it backs up and overflows into your livingroom.
I bet dollars to donuts when the s**t starts coming back on the perpetrators till their up to their eyeballs in brown goo this will get fixed this pretty damn quick! It's one thing when you s**t on Allentown another when the bear s**ts in it's own back yard.
See it's just not all that complicated :-)
Maybe it's just semantics, but to be clear, the PaDEP and USEPA ordered ALL entities involved to correct the problem. LCA runs the regional lines that connect everyone to Allentown, but the problem comes primarily at the municipal level. Allentown has to deal with Allentown properties, Lower Macungie has to deal with Lower Macungie properties, South Whitehall has to deal with South Whitehall properties, etc., etc.
ReplyDeleteLike the comment Mr. Fosselman made the other day in the paper about the compost issue, any time you have more than a dozen municipalities trying to get an agreement together on how to handle a problem, it's going to take some time. Everyone you talk to at Allentown, LCA and the municipalities seem to be taking this problem very seriously, but the solution is going to take a massive amount of time, effort and most importantly cooperation. The finger pointing isn't helpful.
And who ever said anything about LCA "expanding"? LCA's nothing but a service provider. People don't live "in" LCA - they live in a municipality. Growth happens because the municipalities let it happen. Would you rather not have LCA expand its services? Let the sewage run down the street instead like it does in Vera Cruz. Yes, that's much better.
anon 11:03, you're a modest person, to be so informed, yet remain anonymous. i thought the decision to drill additional wells in macgunie to help accommodate the bottling industries were mostly a LCA and county decision. furthermore, i believe allentown's sewage lines ran directly to kline's island long before that LCA line was installed along the creek. Perhaps running the line along the creek was not the best idea?
ReplyDeleteMr. Molovinsky,
ReplyDeleteWe were in Lehigh Parkway last night. The stench was horrific.
From 15th St to the covered bridge waste covered everything.
What was more horrific was watching dog owners ALLOW their dogs to swim in this filth! Raw sewage was on the roads and someone had poured lime over certain areas but it didn't help with much. The water had overflowed the meadows and traveled up into the sides of the roadway on the Lehigh Parkway North sector as well as near the police academy. It was disgusting. This flooding gets worse each year. What has the city done to correct this problem?
We all need to dig through our old papers to find that Janet Keim front page story. Bound to make us sicker.
ReplyDeleteNo surprise the apartment megaplex above the parkway is filing for a reassessment.
ReplyDeleteWay to go Allentown Public Works. It is a feces job but someone has to do it.
Where are the Friends of the Park? Perhaps they're gathering brooms and mops to help with the clean up.
ReplyDeleteLCA sewage capacity has been overloaded since 1984. They don't care that they dump sewage in our park and water intakes. Their spokesperson defended the practice saying something along the lines of "sewage is not so bad"
ReplyDeleteAre you sure this quote isn't attributed to a city of Allentown water dept. official.
What apt complex above the Parkway?
ReplyDeleteDo you mean 1600? Speaking of open land, the once proposed condo complex to be built by two noted Allentown businessmen on the old
Exide plant property is now for sale. Anyone know anything about why the last building proposal brought before the city's planners and approved did not materialize?
Did anyone notice if the water covered the Cedar Beach new playground site?
ReplyDeleteRaw sewage and more. Pawlowski poses for photos while the city rots in front of his face. This is what voters wanted and this sure is what they're getting.
ReplyDeleteLCA waterlines, we believe, were installed in Lehigh Parkway about 1985. That's the date on the manhole covers. Allentown also allowed the water authority to construct an unattractive building in the park! This building requires constant truck traffic and workers to maintain.
ReplyDeleteThe Janet Keim article by By Christopher Baxter, Patrick Lester and Jarrett Renshaw (July 24th)-
ReplyDelete"Sewage dumps by Allentown, others, in treasured Little Lehigh Creek must end, feds say."
"More than 33 million gallons of raw sewage entered the creek from 1999 to 2008 as a result, a Morning Call review of state and federal records shows. The pollution equates to someone flushing a toilet directly into the Little Lehigh about once every 14 seconds for nine years"
Does anyone else think this is strange? On a week that brought tragically two deaths and a feces-filled flood to the Little Lehigh, all the city's mayor can do is introduce a fireworks purchase ordinance.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDelete"Does anyone else think this is strange? On a week that brought tragically two deaths and a feces-filled flood to the Little Lehigh, all the city's mayor can do is introduce a fireworks purchase ordinance."
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The Mayor - and City Council - will do ANYTHING to keep the public distracted from the city's real problems (safety, finance and park destruction).
MM
ReplyDeleteWe stopped by the Parkway late yesterday after reading your blog.
The feces odor hit us in the face. Why didn't the city's health bureau post warning signs along the Little Lehigh, most especially in the Parkway? Late yesterday, a youth football game took place directly above a lime covered manhole cover. What does it take for the health bureau to jump into action? Human waste in pedestrian areas and nothing is done!
The sewerage problem in the Little Lehigh is a threat to the health of us all and has been going on for too long. Everyone should call the Northeast office of DEP at 570-826-2511 to report the problem every time it occurs. If you would rather fax, the number is 570-830-3016.
ReplyDeleteThe feces odor hit us in the face. Why didn't the city's health bureau post warning signs along the Little Lehigh, most especially in the Parkway? Late yesterday, a youth football game took place directly above a lime covered manhole cover. What does it take for the health bureau to jump into action? Human waste in pedestrian areas and nothing is done!
ReplyDeleteOctober 3, 2010 8:17 AM
Is the city's health bureau considered a first responder?
If so...