Some Canonsburg neighbors concerned with smell coming from sewage plant

CANONSBURG, Pa. — A sewage plant in Canonsburg located right between Interstate 79 and Southpointe started to give off a pungent smell six months ago, concerning the people who work and live around it. 

Some said they had a hard time breathing, others even called the gas company thinking it was a possible leak.

Canonsburg Council president Rich Russo started asking questions about why the odor was so bad.

“It was consistent. Day in, day out, so they started looking into it and they started to test the treatment and that’s when they found out it was coming from this one interceptor from North Strabane,” Russo said.

Russo says at its worst the smell was detected a quarter mile around the Canonsburg-Houston Joint Sewer Authority plant, which serves 35,000 households in the area. Russo says the DEP issued a decree over 15 years ago to North Strabane saying it had to feed calcium nitrate into its system to eliminate the smell. At some point over the past six months, that stopped.

Jason Orsini is the chairman of the North Strabane Township Authority Board.

“It was first brought to our attention when Canonsburg brought it to our attention. They emailed us a copy and none of us meaning at the authority, staff, engineer, attorney nobody was even aware of that,” Orsini said.

Orsini said the board treated the water once it found out.

“The chemical does get added to a pump station and it does help with some hydrogen sulfide odors,” Orsini added.

North Strabane says it plans to continue to treat the water. Orsini says there have been odors at the plant in the past that have nothing to do with North Strabane’s sewer line.

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