Solehi Schools Not in Compliance With Fecal Coliform Limits

(Editor's Note: This article contains information that can be misleading. Upper Saucon Patch is printing an additional aritcle for clarification tomorrow which will link in to this article, along with a slight revision to the original text. Both the author and Upper Saucon Patch apologizes.)

The Lower Milford Board of Supervisors has announced that and the entire received notices of violation from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

For the Lower Milford school, it concerned not renewing a stormwater runoff permit in time. For the Solehi district, it concerned violating fecal coliform levels for water.

According to a letter from the DEP, Lower Milford Elementary School did not submit an application for renewal for a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) in a timely manner.

The NPDES permit is essentially a permit to allow stormwater runoff from a separate storm sewer system.

“In order to have met the 180-day deadline, the Department must have received your application on or before April 3, 2012,” the letter states. “According to Department records, your application was received on May 25, 2012.”

Lower Milford Elementary School’s permit could expire Aug. 30 if the DEP decides not to extend the permit.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, permits are effective for five years before the permit holder needs to reapply.

In addition to Lower Milford Elementary, the entire Southern Lehigh School District received notice that it is not in compliance with the permit limit for fecal coliform (bacteria) limit.

Southern Lehigh was alerted that a sample of its water on April 17 showed a fecal coliform count of over 20,000 colonies per 100 milliter sample and a monthly geometric mean of over 800 colonies per 100 milliliters.

The results are not in compliance with DEP permit limits.

In other business, a concerned resident alerted the board - she was told by her neighbor - that township surveyors were walking through her property.

Board Solicitor Mark Cappuccio said the township asked the workers
not to walk through yards and to try and stay in the street. Cappuccio said he would talk with the workers about this behavior.

Board Vice President William Roy questioned if there was any harm done to the woman’s property.

She explained that nothing was disturbed, but wanted to
alert the board because she did not like workers cutting through her yard.

The next Lower Milford Board of Supervisors meeting is
scheduled for 7:30 p.m. July 19. The July 5 workshop has been canceled.