Hearing Monday on Monessen sewer upgrades

By KRISTIE LINDEN

klinden@yourmvi.com

A public hearing will be held Monday in Monessen’s council chambers to discuss $15 million in loans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to improve the city’s sewer infrastructure.

The city will propose an increase of $11.50 to the line-usage fee per ratepayer to fund the loans’ repayment.

Mayor Matt Shorraw said the city received a total of $19,876,400 in combination of a grant and loans through the USDA to repair and replace its 120-year-old sewer and stormwater lines.

“This funding will go a long way in improving our city’s infrastructure and investing in our future,” Shorraw said.

In 2009, the city was placed under a consent decree by the state Department of Environmental Protection to make repairs and upgrades to the sewer lines in the Grand Boulevard sewer shed due to a sewage overflow. 

The city entered into a Corrective Action Plan with the DEP in 2010 and secured a grant from PENNVEST to eliminate the overflows.

In 2016, the late Councilman Ron Chiaravalle said council was looking to apply for a grant or loan through the USDA to begin repairing the sewage pipes before the DEP mandated further action. 

At the time, the Mon Valley Sewage Authority spent about $350,000 to place video recorders underground to examine about 252,000 linear feet of sewer lines in the Grand Boulevard sewer shed, but only 66% of the pipes were viewable due to the deteriorating conditions. 

The majority of the defective pipes were given a level 4 or 5 grade at that time. A level 4 pipe is defined by the DEP as poor and will probably fail in five to 10 years. A level 5 pipe requires immediate attention and has failed or will likely fail within the next five years. 

“A worst case scenario is if all of the major junctions fail, then we have a catastrophe,” Chiaravalle said in November 2016, adding that it would cost roughly $40 million to $50 million to repair the remaining 221,000 linear feet of remaining level 4 and 5 pipes.

Then-Mayor Lou Mavrakis said the city should borrow funds in smaller increments of $4 million or $5 million to begin the repairs and show the DEP it was making progress. 

A Corrective Action Plan was revised in 2017 to include repair of the failing sewer lines throughout the city. Such repairs include the current project, which will see the repair and/or replacement of main trunk lines at 12th, Ninth, Sixth and Third streets and Parente Boulevard. 

The city has so far failed to make necessary repairs or fulfill the necessary requirements, Shorraw said this week.

In 2017, the city began the process of exploring funding with the USDA, but talks stalled by late 2019, Shorraw said.

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