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Lancaster Receives $95,000 Grant From EPA to Upgrade Sewage Treatment

Release Date: 10/3/2000
Contact Information: Roy Seneca, (215) 814-5567

Roy Seneca, 215-814-5567

LANCASTER, Pa. – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded a $95,000 grant to the city of Lancaster to help reduce the amount of nitrogen discharged from the city’s sewage treatment system.

Funding will be used to construct a demonstration project for Biological Nutrient Removal at the city’s main treatment facility and to pay for an influent grinder pump at the city’s North Pumping Station. The project will reduce the nitrogen loading to the Susquehanna River and Chesapeake watershed by as much as 200 pounds per day, or up to 73,000 pounds annually.

“We totally support the city’s effort to reduce the nutrient load in water. This type of a project can only have positive effects on the water quality of the Susquehanna River Basin and the Chesapeake Bay,” said Bradley M. Campbell, EPA administrator for the mid-Atlantic region.

Excessive nutrients such as nitrogen in the water can disrupt aquatic life and promote nuisance algae blooms that starve water of oxygen and kill fish.

The EPA grant will pay for 55 percent of the estimated $172,700 project, and local funding will provide the balance.

A future complete plant upgrade based on this project could reduce nitrogen loading by as much as 1,000 pounds per day.