Speaking to a room full of happy citizens in Westmoreland County, Rural Utilities Service Administrator Jonathan Adelstein congratulated them on the new sewer extension project that will be a real game changer for their community. “I am proud to mark Earth Day 2012 with this partnership between Rural Development and the Community and it is infrastructure projects like this that ensures that rural communities have their basic needs met in terms of clean water and modern, up-to-date sewer facilities,” said Adelstein. The ceremony highlighted the new $5.6 million dollar regional sewer extension project that will upon completion provide over 450 new homes and numerous businesses in the area with connectivity to the Coles Point wastewater treatment plant.
Also speaking at the event, Mr. Darryl Fisher-Chairman of the Westmoreland Board of Supervisor and local business owner said, “We would not be able to move forward in this community without this critical assistance. We have several areas of the community where land just would not be suitable for individual septic systems to construct homes and businesses and this new extension will provide us viable options for the future of this region.
At the event it was discovered that many of the private septic systems that residents in the Glebe Harbor, Tidwell, and Drum Bay areas of Westmoreland County currently use are failing, resulting in raw sewage, standing on residents’ properties and possible runoff into nearby streams. This area is in close proximity to the Potomac River, which flows into the Chesapeake Bay. The project will enable the region’s rural citizens to connect to the new sewer lines and use the existing capacity of the Coles Point Sewer Treatment Facility.