Pine Creek wastewater treatment facility in McCandless expanding
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A $21 million expansion of the Pine Creek wastewater treatment facility will allow the site to enlarge its capacity and make the facility more environmentally friendly.
The McCandless Township Sanitary Authority broke ground on the expansion project in early April, said William Youngblood, director of MTSA. The authority hopes the expansion will be complete within two years, he said, though supply chain slowdowns may delay the project’s completion slightly.
The expansion includes adding six new 450,000-gallon processing tanks. This will allow the facility to handle an additional 1 million gallons of material per day, Youngblood said.
“It allows the county and the communities to grow in this region, because if you can’t dispose of your waste, you can’t get a permit to build a building,” he said.
The site’s expansion and upgrades will be funded by rate increases for customers, beginning with a 6% increase in May, he said. Youngblood said he anticipates another jump in rates will come later as the project progresses, but he could not estimate how much more average customers would ultimately pay.
The project also will make the process more environmentally friendly with a $2 million ultraviolet light system. The ultraviolet light will allow the sanitary authority to nix its use of chlorine, keeping the chemical out of local streams and waterways, while efficiently killing off germs and bacteria.
“We’re going to disinfect with ultraviolet light,” Youngblood said. “It kills everything with about a five-second exposure to the light. There will be no more chlorine, when the project is done, going into the stream. The ultraviolet light will take out anything that is harmful to aquatic life in the streams. From an environmental standpoint, it will make it much cleaner for the receiving streams.”
MTSA has implemented similar ultraviolet light systems in other facilities, he said, as part of an effort to curb the environmental impacts of their sites. Though the technology is pricey, Youngblood said, it’s a worthwhile investment in ensuring the authority is doing its part to protect waterways. The upgrades also ensure the authority remains in compliance with environmental regulations set forth by the Department of Environmental Protection, he said.
“We’ve been trying to be fiscally responsible, but also to be environmentally responsible,” he said. “I’m really interested in making sure we’re environmentally responsible for our customers.”
The Pine Creek facility services about 55,000 people, according to Youngblood. The authority also budgets about $500,000 annually for sewer line maintenance and repairs, Youngblood said.
The population of McCandless went from 28,457 in 2010 to 29,698 in 2020, according to the U.S. Census.