Credit: Bing.com
County taxpayers will shelling out additional money for the removal of hundreds of thousands of gallons of nasty sludge found in the bottom of two tanks at the long-abandoned, soon-to-be demolished Fergesonville wastewater treatment plan on Newportville Road in Bristol Township.
Contractors working at the site, which was formally operated by the Falls Township Authority to treat sewage, discovered 300,289 gallons of the semi-solid material left behind after wastewater treatment, officials said last week during a county commissioners meeting. The sludge was in two tanks covered by lids and up to 12 feet of water.
Advertisements
Officials said at the time the plant was inspected the sludge was “inaccessible.” They added that the former plant manager told them the almost all the sludge was empty from the tanks.
It was not stated at the meeting if the county plans to take action against Falls Township or the plant manager who gave officials bad information on the state of the site, which includes tanks, a control building and various other structures.
The removal of the sludge is expected to cost the county 90 percent of $181,659, with other funds paying the rest. The county is already paying contractor Geppert Brothers Inc. $493,620 to tear down the remaining buildings and tanks on the site. County officials said by the time the project is complete the land will be free of structures and will remain open space.
Advertisements
The site, which sits along the Neshaminy Creek, was built in the 1960s and closed by the Falls Township Authority in 1988. Bucks County bought it as open space in 2002.
Since the plant’s closure, the site has become a hot-spot for vandals who have entered through holes and gaps in a rusted metal fence around the property.
Advertisements
[mqMap key=”AI49″ width=”520″ height=”520″ src=”http://www.mapquest.com/embed?icid=mqdist_mb_wp&c=AI49&maptype=hyb&zm=18&cr=40.1134706161423,-74.90279632605936&projection=sm&showScale=false”]My New Map[/mqMap]
