Sewer Tank Meeting Sparks Heated Debate Between Residents, Township

about the proposed sewer storage tank became a heated debate between some residents and the township.

But before residents had a chance to ask questions, there was a recap of the situation by Radnor Haverford Marple (RHM) Sewer Authority solicitor Bill Toal to bring everyone up to speed.

He suggested to the Haverford Township Board of Commissioners that the proposed $2 million underground sewer storage tank could either be moved to where the volleyball courts are located at and then move the courts to the right of the entrance gate of the park.

Or move the volleyball courts to where the RHM building is located within the park, at 600 Glendale Rd., Havertown.

The 1.5-million gallon sanitary sewer storage tank could be placed where the volleyball courts are located now and would be flush to the ground, Toal proposed.

The sewer storage tank would handle the two to four yearly overflow problems, where heavy rains overflow the sewer and brings up waste to the surface, the township faces, Toal said.

He added that the proposed tank would use a gravity system that would not involve pumps that could breakdown and it would be cheaper to maintain and clean.

Another proposal has been a parallel interceptor sewer line that would run from Havertown to Upper Darby, RHM’s engineering consultant Fred Williams told the Haverford-Havertown Patch after the meeting. But the engineering study would be up to $20 million alone and the actual construction would be between $40 million to $60 million, he said. The current interceptor sewer line would feed into the proposed tank should there be an overflow.

One resident asked if the proposed sewer storage tank could handle the heavy rains caused by a hurricane, where Williams said the tank would need to be closed because it could not deal with that amount of water.

Havertown resident Mark Capriotti asked why the tank would not be placed in Radnor, since the source of the overflow problems are “upstream” to where Havertown is.

Eighth Ward Commissioner Chris Connell said the proposed tank is needed at Merry Place Park because most of the township’s sewer overflow happens often in that area.

Toal also added that the Department of Environmental Protection told the authority that it had to fix the overflow problem where it occurs.

But Capriotti was still not satisfied. 

“I’m still concerned with a 1.5-million gallon reservoir of sewerage in our township,” he said.

During a heated exchange between Capriotti and Toal about the average daily flow of the current interceptor line (which is 8 million gallons a day) and how much the proposed tank can handle, there was a confrontation between township president and 9th Ward Commissioner Bill Wechsler and township vice president and 1st Ward Commissioner Steve D'Emilio.

D’Emilio accused Wechsler of saying, “How can (Capriotti) be so dumb.”

Capriotti’s wife, Darline Capriotti, demanded an apology.

“(Wechsler) said it was a dumb statement. I think he should apologize,” Darline Capriotti told Patch after the meeting.

But in a phone interview on Wednesday afternoon, Wechsler told Patch that it was a misunderstanding and he was not speaking about Capriotti at all. He said that he was really talking about how some of the audience was from his ward and they wanted to discuss the odor issue that the tank may produce and claimed that somehow his statement was interpreted the wrong way. 

This was not the first time the two commissioners had an argument over the proposed sewer tank. , D'Emilio accused Wechsler of "backdoor politics" for not inviting residents to the meeting. Wechsler shot back, saying that the work session was just an update meeting on the proposed tank and not a voting meeting.

But the most recent meeting continued with another resident, Adrian Ashfield, said that he was getting conflicting numbers of the peak overflow of the interceptor line due to heavy rains. According to Ashfield, Springfield Township engineer told him the daily flow of the line is about 21 million gallons.

But Williams insisted that the peak overflow rate is 15 million gallons, with Ashfield requested that a “reputed third party” to confirm the numbers. Williams said that peak flows do vary depending on the amount of rain.

However, some of the Board of Commissioners insisted that the proposed sewer storage tank is needed.

“Do I want fecal matter (from the overflow) in the park? No. Do I want an underground tank? No. Is this a temporary solution? Yes,” Wechsler told Patch.

After the meeting, D'Emilio said that at one point Marple was a proposal place for the sewer storage tank, but Toal said that while it was not his ideal location, the county turned down the idea to put the tank there.