Important topics were discussed at Monday's Slatington Borough Authority meeting, including excess zinc in the borough's sewer sludge, which project will be chosen in order to spend the remaining money of an H2O grant, and whether or not the steps necessary for the dissolution of the authority have yet taken place.

First up, Chairwoman Laurie Dart-Schnaufer asked Sewer Plant Operator Stefan Myers whether or not zinc levels at the plant are still high. He said yes, the levels are still too high to take the sludge to the Lehigh County Authority site to which the borough used to sometimes take it. The borough was banned from taking its sludge there when the extremely high zinc levels were discovered.He said the excess zinc was originally found when the engineer in charge of LCA pre-treatment came up to look at the plant's digester in January of last year. The next time the plant sent a load of sludge down, Myers said, the LCA took note of its zinc level.Meyers said a change in color of the inflow from the Union Street line, to which the school district is connected, prompted him to test that line. It was later determined that the zinc was most likely coming from the wax and stripper used on the school districts' floors.Borough Manager Kevin Deppe said he contacted the school district's director of support services, Greg Derr, in hopes of setting up a meeting with the school district.Deppe said he has also approached several area businesses as well in hopes of determining whether or not zinc may also be coming into the sewer system from other sources, and plans to continue doing so.In regard to using extra money from an H2O grant before it is required to be turned back the state, authority members discussed options regarding which projects could be completed before the grant's deadline of June 2015.At a recent council meeting, the outflow pumping station was the project the council showed the most interest in; however, Engineer Ted Stevenson determined another extension would need to be granted to get that project completed."If they don't want to go forward with it, there's really very little else you can do with the funds," said solicitor Ed Healy, "So a decision would have to be made. Is there anything else worth trying to do, or do you want to just give the money back to the state?"Dart-Schnaufer suggested that if the outflow pumping station project cannot be completed, perhaps they should use the money on miscellaneous piping valves on the trickling filter and effluent line at the plant.Stevenson said the cost of that project would be about $30,000 and could be done in time so as not to need a grant extension.However, it was unanimously approved to ask engineer Rettew and Associates to form a letter asking the state for another year extension for the H2O grant, just in case it would be approved, so that council could still consider using the money toward that project instead.Lastly, the authority discussed whether or not an NPDES permit transfer, which would essentially remove its control over operation of the sewer facility because it does not have financial control over it, and place control instead with the borough, has moved forward at all.The authority had approached the council in May regarding the transfer. However, as Healy noted, it took time because council wanted to set up a meeting with the Department of Environmental Protection before completing the permit transfer application. The DEP has since declined a meeting, he said.In other news, visitor Ed Ziegler told the authority that someone told him the Federal Aviation Administration is requiring that approximately 15-foot-high trees near his property, east of the borough's sewer plant, be cut down because they are in the flight plan of Slatington Airport.He said that turbulence from a sewer plant pipe that extends into the Lehigh River has caused the island to form on which the trees have since grown, thus creating "new land" that did not previously exist.Ziegler said something should be done by the authority or the borough council to remove the island and cut down the trees because the newly formed island does not belong to him.